LIBRARY 
a»  •«  C 
IRVINE 


•fit1' 


PEGGY 


\ 


As  she  offered  me 

her  hand,  she  lifted  up 

her  face  to  mine. 


Peggy  O'Neal 


Author  of  Wolfville   &    Wolfville  Day./- 
Wolfville  Nighty  &   etc..  etc..  etc. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  HENRY  HUTT 


DREXEL      BIDDLE 

PUBLISHER          4          A          A         PHILADELPHIA 


Copyright,  1902,  I,,  A.  J.  DREXEL  BIDDLE 
PUBLISHED,  MAY,  1903. 


ENTERED  AT  STATIONERS'  HALL,  LONDON. 


TO 

MRS.  A.  J.  DREXEL  BIDDLE 

THIS  VOLUME 
IS   RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  FACE 

I.  The  Lustrous  Peg  O'Neal      ...     13 
II.  Port  Wine  Duff  and  Pigeon-Breast      45 

III.  Peg's  Meeting  with  the  Major   .     .     71 

IV.  The  Jew  and  His  Spanish  Sword     .  107 
V.  The  Rev.  Campbell  and  The  Mag- 
pie        135 

VI.  The  Storm  Gathers  Against  Peg    .  161 

VII.  The  Secretary,  Suave  as  Cream  .     .  193 

VIII.  The  Mad  Capricious  Peg       ...  224 

IX.  The  General  Selects  His  Successor    259 

X.  The  Major  and  Peg  at  Crosses  .     .  292 

XL  The  General  Makes  Proverbs  .     .  325 

XII.  How  Peg  Would  Wear  the  Coral  .  356 

XIII.  The  Son  of  the  Spanish  Bull-Fighter    392 

XIV.  The   Federal  Union:    It   Must   be 

Preserved 422 

XV.  How  Peg  was  Saved  from  Peg  .     .  454 
XVI.  Love's  Funeral  in  the  Snow    .     .     .  477 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE. 

Peggy  O'Neal Frontispiece 

As  she  offered  me  her  hand,  she  lifted  up 

her  face  to  mine Frontispiece 

Noah  ripped  up  his  foe's  arm  from  wrist 

to  shoulder 131 

"And  you  shall  have  a  collar."     ....    212 

She     arose,    careless    and    contained,     as 

though  she  had  not  observed  me.     .      307 


PREFACE 

Doubtless  I  shall  tell  this  tale  but  poorly, 
since  I  have  no  skill  of  writing  or  rhetoric  and 
must,  for  the  most  part,  proceed  by  blunt  sen- 
tences and  short  one-syllable  words  to  the  end 
that  I  be  understood.  This  record  is  worth 
while,  I  think,  for  it  exhibits  the  growth  of 
favor  for  the  Union  within  the  General's  breast; 
and  to  be  corollary  thereunto,  his  wrath  against 
States  Rights  as  a  doctrine,  together  with  a 
hatred  of  Calhoun,  its  champion,  and  what 
other  folk  were  found  to  uphold  the  Vice- 
President's  hands  in  those  ill  courses  of  nulli- 
fication and  separation  and  secession  he  laid 
down  for  national  misguidance. 

I  myself  had  been  with  the  General,  war 
and  peace,  for  thirty  years  on  end.  He  was 
like  an  elder  brother  to  me,  and  I  apprehended 
no  man  better.  And  knowing  him  thus  well — 
having  his  thought  and  feeling  and  emotion  of 
politics  at  my  mental  fingerends — it  is  in  my 
strong  belief  that  not  until  he  came  and  made 
oath  as  chief  magistrate,  did  he  conclude  his 
position  touching  this  claim  of  right  on  a 
state's  part  to  nullify  general  law  and  strike 


her  name  from  the  roll  of  our  common  sister- 
hood. I  was  with  him,  I  say,  when  the  seed 
of  the  General's  determination  to  stand  for  a 
union,  one  and  indivisible,  was  planted ;  and  I 
witnessed  its  quick  upgrowing  and  broadening 
until  it  sheltered  and  shadowed  with  wide  safety 
the  very  integrity  of  the  country.  We  had  ar- 
rived at  a  fork  in  the  road ;  the  ways  were 
about  to  part.  Calhoun  would  have  led  us  to 
the  left  where  no  man  could  be  sure  of  national 
continuance  over  night.  But  the  General  ruled; 
he  was  for  the  right  hand.  By  his  iron  cour- 
age, and  the  brisk,  white  clearness  of  his  men- 
tal lights,  the  General  was  to  triumph.  As 
descendant  of  such  victory  the  States  were  to 
be  unified  and  secession  beaten  down.  Nor 
shall  that  hour  find  its  morning  in  all  time 
when  the  mighty  excellences  of  the  General's 
labors  are  not  to  have  their  evidence,  and  the 
tree  he  planted  bear  into  the  hands  of  men  its 
fruits  upon  the  earth.  He  was  a  tremendous 
mechanic  of  state,  was  General  Jackson;  and 
the  world  in  its  construction  will  wear  his 
hammer-marks  with  those  of  Cromwell  and 
Napoleon  while  the  ages  keep  to  their  proces- 
sion. 

And  yet,  as  may  the  Amazon  have  ulti- 
mate well-head  in  some  rivulet  as  thin  as  a 
thread,  or  a  spring  so  little  that  a  gourd  might 


R 


serve  for  its  exhaustion,  so  did  the  General 
come  to  select  his  place  in  this  business  of  up- 
holding the  Union  against  those  who  would 
pull  it  down,  as  incident  to  bucklering  a  woman 
— poor  and  slight  and  feeble,  she  was ;  the 
beautiful  Peg  O'Neal! — who  for  her  loveliness 
was  envied  and  for  her  goodness  was  hated 
and  for  her  origin  as  a  tavern-keeper's  daugh- 
ter was  contemned  by  those  proud  folk  who 
named  themselves  the  nation's  court  of  fashion. 
The  General  was  a  sentimentalist ;  justice 
and  to  do  right  were  with  him  instincts,  and 
came  not  as  grist  ground  coldly  in  the  mills  of 
calculated  selfishness  and  reason.  Scotch-Irish 
he  was  in  his  strain ;  but  more  Irish  than  the 
Irish  and  more  Scotch  than  the  Scotch,  he  in 
a  manner  wonderful  could  in  the  same  moment 
be  cool  and  warm,  and  cautious  and  headlong, 
and  prudent  and  reckless,  and  close  and  frank 
— at  once  a  Fabius  and  a  Scipio.  In  a  glow 
of  sentiment  made  molten  hot  by  the  recent 
death  of  his  wife — to  him  the  Goddess  of  his 
worship— the  General  would  extend  the  power 
of  his  place  and  name  to  be  a  refuge  for  the 
tearful,  beautiful  Peg,  whom,  as  a  child,  his 
wife  had  known  and  loved,  and  whom  he  now 
found  evilly  crushed  beneath  the  social  wheel. 
And  in  a  rush  of  feeling  he  rescues  her  and 
sets  her  high  among  the  highest.  Still,  while 


it  owns  its  hot  inception  to  impulse  wholly 
Irish,  this  rescue;  the  carrying  out  thereof, 
when  now  the  General  goes  about  it,  turns  to 
be  all  Scotch  in  the  cautious  yet  indomitable 
character  of  its  execution. 

Also,  for  that  the  General  is  ardent  and 
prone  to  mix  private  passion  with  his  public 
thought,  he  arrives  at  a  hatred  of  nullification, 
finding  it  a  prime  principle  among  those  ene- 
mies whom  he  faces  for  the  sake  of  poor  Peg 
O'Neal.  It  is  the  great  fire  kindled  of  a  small 
thing,  this,  the  General's  war  to  sustain  the 
Union  against  ones  who  already  searched  for 
its  life.  He  rides  into  the  lists  for  a  woman's 
name,  and  all  unknowingly  he  bears  the  coun- 
try's future  on  the  point  of  his  spear.  And 
so  comes  this  story;  to  the  purpose  and  the 
hope  that  what  in  this  good  way  the  General 
did,  and  why  and  how  he  did  it,  may  not  die 
and  disappear  upon  the  memories  of  men. 


PEGGY    O'NEAL 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   LUSTROUS   PEG   O'NEAL 

It  was  my  fate,  I  will  not  say  my  misfort- 
une— being  too  proud — to  dwell  overmuch  with 
camps  and  caucuses  and  transact  more  than 
stood  best  for  me  of  politics  and  war.  These 
were  my  schools,  and  they  sadly  served  to 
make  me  coarse  and  turn  me  hard.  Sometimes 
I  think  this  pity,  for  I  was  conceived,  you  are 
to  notice,  with  no  scanty  promise  of  fineness 
to  my  fiber. 

Now  I  am  moved  to  remember,  and  I 
might  add  almost  to  regret  these  things,  be- 
cause I  would  like  much  at  this  pinch  to  color 
for  you  a  right  picture  of  the  fair,  innocent, 
unfortunate  Peg  O'Neal.  Yet  how  am  I  to  do 
this? — I,  loaded  of  a  sluggish  fancy  and  a 
genius  without  touch !  I  am  no  Apelles  to 
paint  an  Aphrodite,  no  Phidias  to  carve  a 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

Venus ;  and  for  that  matter,  Peg  no  Phryne  to 
be  model  for  such  art.  The  best  I  might  draw 
would  stand  crude  and  cornerwise,  since  I  own 
only  to  talents  whereof  the  graphic  character 
is  exhausted  when  they  have  laid  out  a  worm 
fence. 

It  is  within  the  rim  of  the  possible  that 
you  may  feel  for  me,  born  as  I  show  you  with 
the  hands  of  all  good  power  of  description 
bound  close  and  fast  by  my  sides.  Perhaps, 
too,  you  yourself  on  occasion  have  been  stung 
of  high  impulse  and  fain  would  soar  with  a 
poem ;  and  then,  when  you  stretched  for  flight, 
found  no  furnishment  of  wings.  Most  folk 
have  been  thus  crowded  upon  by  exaltations, 
and  were  prey  to  thoughts  for  the  expression 
of  which  their  lisping  natures  lacked  facility. 
They  had  the  sinew  but  not  the  soul.  There 
was  verse  in  them,  but  with  it  no  presentation 
dress  of  word  or  ornament  of  rhyme.  They 
caged  a  tune  of  music  in  their  hearts  and 
failed  of  those  notes  asked  for  to  announce  its 
melody. 

Still,  our  Peg,  for  whom  we  toiled — the 
General  and  I — and  intrigued  and  made  new 
friendships  and  broke  old  ones,  and  who  was 
in  her  fortunes  the  beginning  of  policies  on 
the  General's  part  so  lasting  in  importance  to 
the  State,  shall  not  go  untold.  I  must  make 

«4 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

what  effort  lies  in  me  to  give  some  notion  of  a 
beauty  that  claimed  so  much  of  potency  in 
equations  of  government  solved  of  our  times. 

For  myself,  and  I  take  no  shame  for  it,  I 
say  freely  that  of  the  charges  laid  against  her 
by  common  tongue,  I  was  convinced  of  her  in- 
nocence by  the  mere  beauty  of  her  face,  just 
as  the  loveliness  of  that  Greek  girl  aforetime 
convinced  the  judges  and  wrought  a  verdict  in 
her  favor.  There  be  flowers  so  purely  beauti- 
ful as  to  refuse  and  refute  a  stain ;  and  such  a 
blossom  was  the  lustrous  Peg  O'Neal. 

I  was  first  to  meet  with  her  at  this  time ; 
and  while  I  had  not  condemned  her  in  my 
thoughts — to  condemn  a  woman  is,  for  a  man, 
the  coward  part ! — if  I  found  myself  possessed 
of  views  at  all,  they  leaned  to  her  disfavor.  I 
knew  the  General  regarded  Peg  as  a  white 
soul  suffering  wrong ;  but  I  also  knew  the 
General  to  be  mercurial,  and  a  blindly  passion- 
ate recruit  when  once  enlisted.  Besides,  his 
own  wife  had  been  throughout  her  life — and 
she  most  virtuous ! — so  lashed  of  slander,  that 
his  blood  was  ever  up  and  about  the  defence 
of  any  whose  wailing  wrongs  resembled  her's. 
The  General's  attitudes  were  never  the  off- 
shoots of  cold  wisdom ;  he  was  one  who  be- 
lieved the  worst  of  a  foe  so  soon  as  it  was 
told,  and  the  best  of  a  friend  before  ever  it 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

was  told  at  all.  Wherefore  I  would  not  accept 
the  General's  decision  touching  Peg,  more 
than  I  would  take  other  conclusions  from  his 
hands. 

My  conservatism  and  just  slowness  cut, 
however,  no  figure,  since,  as  I  tell  you,  with 
the  moment  I  clapped  eyes  upon  her,  I  changed 
to  be  her  knight — her  champion;  and  there- 
after I  matched  even  the  torrid  General  in  fire 
for  her  cause. 

I  was  in  talk  with  the  General  when  news 
reached  me  of  Peg  waiting  in  the  parlor  for  a 
meeting.  It  was  Jim  who  bore  me  word ;  he 
peered  around  the  corner  of  the  door  and  with 
rolling  eye  as  one  who  brings  bad  tidings, 
beckoned  me  into  the  hallway. 

"What  is  it?"  I  demanded  impatiently. 

I  should  tell  you,  perhaps,  that  Jim  was 
more  than  twenty  years  my  senior,  and  nearing 
on  to  three  score  years  and  ten.  This  may 
explain  that  attitude  of  mentor,  not  to  say 
protector,  of  my  morals  which  it  was  his  pleas- 
ure to  hold  towards  me. 

"What  is  it?     Speak  up  I" 

Jim  shook  his  grizzled  head,  and  his  look 
was  loaded  of  reproof. 

"See  yere,  Marse  Major,"  said  Jim;  "dish 
yere  aint  Tennessee  where  you-all  kin  do  as 
you  please.  What  you  reckon  now  Marse 

16 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

Gen'ral  would  gwine  say  to  sech  cat-an'-fiddle 
doin's?" 

"And  now  what's  wrong?"  I  inquired; 
humbly  enough,  for  I  was  much  beneath  Jim's 
sway. 

"Marse  Major,  lemme  ask  you,"  said  Jim, 
and  with  that  he  fixed  me  with  his  old  eye  like 
an  inquisitor;  "lemme  ask  you:  Does  you-all 
send  for  to  meet  a  young  lady?" 

"Certainly  not,"  I  replied.  "Do  you 
think  I've  come  to  Washington  to  meet  young 
ladies?"  This  last  indignantly. 

"How  I  know  what  you  do?"  retorted 
Jim,  sullenly.  "  Ever  see  a  hoss  in  a  new  pars- 
tur'?  Ever  see  how  he  r'ar  an'  pitch  an'  buck- 
jump  an'  kick  up?  How  I  know  what  you  do?" 
"Get  to  the  point,"  I  said,  and  I  drew  on 
a  fierce  expression,  for  I  was  running  low  of 
patience. 

"No  use,  Marse  Major,  for  you  to  go 
dom'neerin'  with  Jim,"  and  the  scoundrel 
shook  his  head  admonishingly.  "I'll  fotch 
up  at  d'  p'int  fas'  enough.  I  tells  dese  yere 
niggahs  about  dis  hotel  that  if  any  one  comes 
squanderin'  'round  to  see  you-all,  an'  speshul, 
if  any  of  them  evil-minded  women-folks  comes 
'round,  to  let  me  know." 

"What  do  you  mean  with  your  evil-minded 
women-folks?" 

17 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"That's  all  right,  Marse  Major;  Jim  aint 
heer'n  d'  Bible  read  for  mighty  likely  sixty 
years  an'  not  know  of  them  evil-minded  women- 
folks. King  Solomon,  an'  him  d'  wisest  man, 
was  mingled  up  in  d'  midst  of  a  whole  passel 
of  'em.  An'  so,  when  a  minute  back  one  of 
d'  house  niggahs  comes  up  to  me  an'  lets  on 
thar's  a  young  lady  in  d'  parlor  who's  waitin' 
for  you,  I  allows  I'll  take  a  look,  an'  try  an' 
rummage  out  what  she  wants.  With  that,  I 
kinder  loiters  into  d'  parlor  like  I'm  sent  a 
urrent;  an'  sho !  Marse  Major,  if  thar  don't 
sot  a  girl  who's  that  beautiful  she's  plumb  ree- 
dic'lous. 

"'Be  you-all  wantin'  to  meet  d'  Marse 
Major?'  I  says. 

"She  say,  'Yes;  I'm  d'  wife  of  his  friend, 
Mr.  Eaton.' 

"'Mr.  Eaton,'  I  says,  'who  lives  down 
south  of  Nashville  at  Franklin  Co't  House?' 

"She  say,  'Yes;  I'm  Mrs.  Eaton.' 

"Course  I  knows  dish  yere  aint  so.  An' 
I'm  partic'lar  skeered  about  you,  besides,  since 
she's  so  handsome.  It's  d'  beautiful  ones 
makes  all  d'  trouble ;  a  homely  woman  aint  no 
more  harm  than  squinch  owls,  that's  Jim's 
sperience.  But  nacherally,  Marse  Major,  I 
don't  tell  dish  yere  girl  she's  lyin' ;  I'm  too 
well  brought  up.  So  I  says : 

it 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

'"I've  knowed  Mr.  Eaton  since  befo'  d' 
las'  wah  with  d'  British  what  Marse  Gen'ral 
done  whups  at  Noo  Aw-leans ;  Mr.  Eaton's  a 
kin  to  my  Marse  Major.  I've  been  down  by 
his  place  a  him' red  times  at  Franklin;  an'  you 
hyar  me,  honey!  they  aint  been  no  mention 
about  you  bein'  his  wife  in  Tennessee.' 

"  She  smile  a  bit  at  this — she's  seemin'  t* 
trifle  sad  like — an'  says:  'Mr.  Eaton  an'  me, 
we  get  married  only  'bout  a  month  ago  in 
Wash'ton.'  An'  so  she  tell  me  ag'in  to  go 
fotch  you ;  an'  arter  sort  o'  hesitatin'  'round 
between  a  balk  an'  a  break-down  for  a  while, 
settlin'  on  d'  properest  move,  I  reckons  mebbe 
I'd  better  come  an'  tell  you  arter  all." 

"It's  as  well  you  did,"  I  said,  turning  back 
to  the  General's  door. 

"That's  all  right,  Marse  Major."  Jim 
called  this  after  me  in  severe  tones.  "I'm 
boun'  I'm  gwine  look  arter  you-all  jes'  dr 
same."  Then  in  a  wheedling  voice :  "  Say. 
Marse  Major,  would  you-all  mind  if  I  he'ps 
myse'f  to  a  dram  outen  d'  demijohn  in  your 
closet?  What  with  all  dish  yere  talkin'  an' 
frettin'  about  you,  Jim's  mouth  is  as  dry  as  a 
kivered  bridge." 

"One,  mind  you;  no  more.1 

The  General,  in  converse  with  a  caller, 
was  considering  Van  Buren,  and  party  lines 

'9 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

and  issues  in  New  York.  I  would  have  told 
him  of  Peg,  and  that  I  was  about  to  see  her, 
but  the  presence  of  his  visitor  put  it  out  of 
reach.  On  the  whole,  I  decided,  it  would  be 
as  well  to  meet  Peg  first  and  tell  the  General 
later.  I  interrupted,  and  explained  that  I  was 
going  to  the  parlors  for  a  moment ;  we  would 
get  to  his  letters  on  my  return. 

"No  hurry,  Major,  no  hurry,"  he  replied; 
"I'm  quite  content  to  put  them  off.  I  am 
already  seized  on  by  the  spirit  of  laziness  that 
pervades  this  place,  and  which  caused  Ran- 
dolph to  say:  'I  never  wind  my  watch  whilst 
in  Washington,  as  I  feel  that  all  time  spent 
here  is  wasted  and  thrown  away.'  It's  not 
quite  that  bad,  perhaps;  still,  we'll  willingly 
put  off  the  letters  until  to-morrow." 

And  now,  since  I  am  to  tell  you  of  Peg,  I 
would  that  I  possessed  somewhat  the  art  of 
petticoats — a  little  polite  skill  for  flounce  and 
farthingale — some  shadow  of  a  parlor  or  a 
boudoir  grace. 

Peg,  then,  was  the  truth  itself  for  height 
and  mould,  and  her  pretty  hands  and  feet  told 
of  no  tavern  in  their  genesis,  even  though  the 
lip  of  envy  did.  I  give  you  my  first  impres- 
sion of  her,  earned  eye  to  eye  and  ear  to  voice. 
I  say  the  latter  because  her  voice  was  as  honey 
and  wove  conviction  like  a  spell.  She  had 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

your  pansy  face ;  a  face  regular  and  ineffably 
good.  And  how  any,  even  a  woman  and  a 
rival,  might  look  her  deep  eyes  through  and 
doubt  her,  masters  conjecture !  Peg's  hair — 
hanging  in  long  curls  about  her  neck  and 
shoulders — was  black;  fine  as  silk  or  cobwebs; 
black,  yet  with  the  gold-black  of  the  black 
Saxon.  And  her  skin  was  snow  and  peach- 
blow.  There  was  meditation,  too,  in  her  wide 
brow;  and  her  mouth,  with  teeth  like  milk, 
was  both  firm  and  loving.  Also,  there  was  that 
in  her  atmosphere  to  bring  brave  men  to  her. 
It  was  upon  one  in  a  moment  that  Peg,  while 
tender  to  be  hurt,  was  hard  to  conquer ;  sensi- 
tive, she  would  feel  her  fate ;  yet  she  would 
face  it — face  it  with  the  faithful  courage  of  an 
angel.  But  I'll  have  done ;  why  furnish  the 
fragments  and  queer  splinters  of  a  portrait 
I'm  too  inaptly  dull  to  offer  as  a  whole  I 

Peg  O'Neal  came  this  day,  and  making 
herself  known,  gave  me  my  first  sight  of  her 
in  the  drawing  room  of  the  Indian  Queen. 
There  was  a  look  about  her,  lonely,  bitter  and 
pathetic ;  a  look  that  should  belong  with  one 
hunted,  and  who  waits  to  be  made  sure  of  her 
friends.  She  gave  me  her  hand ;  white  and 
soft  and  small  and  yielding — it  was  as  though 
I  took  hold  on  a  lily.  My  heart  went  out  to 
her  before  she  spoke ;  as  I've  confessed,  I  was 

21 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

warm  for  her  cause  on  the  instant. 

Peg  had  read  the  cabinet  list  in  the  paper; 
I  think,  too,  she  foresaw  the  woe  and  worry  to 
become  the  tail  of  it  more  clearly  than  did 
either  the  General  or  myself,  or  even  the  port- 
wine  Duff  Green.  It  was  of  that  she  desired 
to  talk;  she  would  see  the  General;  but  first 
she  would  see  me. 

This  preference  for  myself  before  the 
General  was  a  common  custom  into  which  Peg 
readily  stepped.  All  who  knew  the  General, 
knew  me  for  his  other  self;  and  I  will  say, 
despite  the  inference  of  a  boast,  knew  me  for 
his  calmer  and  more  prudent  self. 

Peg  did  not  come  to  me  until  the  after- 
noon, and  before  I  go  to  the  story  of  our  con- 
verse it  would  be  as  well  to  sketch  a  handful 
of  incidents  which  preceded  her  advent  and 
which  should  be  understood  to  teach  one  the 
whole  truth  of  this  tale. 

This  Washington  day  I  have  on  my  mind's 
edge,  being  the  one  next  before  the  day  Peg 
came  to  me,  was  the  fourteenth  of  February, 
St.  Valentine's  Day,  albeit  the  latter  has  noth- 
ing of  part  herein.  We  had  arrived,  the  Gen- 
eral and  myself,  on  the  tenth,  and  housed  at 
the  Indian  Queen.  This  tavern  was  not  the 
tavern  of  old,  when  that  O'Neal  who  was 
Peg's  father  prevailed  as  master-  vet  even 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

under  new  control — and  with  a  born  conserva- 
tive like  myself,  the  new  is  ever  the  defective 
— it  was  a  first  hostel  of  the  capital. 

Our  advent  discovered  a  crust  of  ice  and 
snow  to  our  feet,  and  a  mortal  sharpness  in 
the  air  that  was  like  a  tonic.  During  those 
three  or  four  days  since  our  coming,  a  thaw 
had  befallen  which  left  thoroughfares  a  dis- 
couraging swale  of  mire,  and  made  going 
about  a  foulest  possible  employ.  Withal,  as 
though  sponsor  for  the  softening  temperature, 
there  descended  a  fog — fairly  a  hash  of  misty 
rain  that  one  might  wash  one's  face  in — and 
the  air  was  as  full  of  water  as  a  sponge. 

These  were  no  true  conditions  for  the 
General,  with  lungs  never  the  hardiest,  and 
whose  health  was  more  than  commonly  broken 
by  the  blow  of  his  wife's  death.  She  was 
soundly,  deeply  sleeping  in  her  grave  in  Ten- 
nessee, and  the  new  sods  above  her  counted 
but  twelve  weeks  for  their  age,  when  we  rode 
into  Washington.  She  had  heard  the  guns 
and  the  music  which  told  of  her  hero's  tri- 
umph; and  then,  heart-stricken  of  shafts  of 
slander  aimed  against  her  sinlessness  by  an 
opposition  willing  to  conquer  with  black 
means,  she  bowed  her  gentle  head  and  passed. 
She  was  not  to  multiply  a  White  House  honor 
by  sharing  it,  and  left  her  lover-husband  to  go 

23 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

his  presidential  way  alone  unlighted  of  her 
eyes. 

Those  dark  scenes  at  the  Hermitage  when 
the  General's  angel  went  from  us,  and  storms 
of  grief — so  utter,  so  beyond  repair  ! — fair 
beat  upon  him  to  a  point  which  all  but  laid 
him  beneath  the  grass-roots  to  keep  her  com- 
pany, have  neither  part  nor  lot  in  this  relation. 
They  may  be  guessed  at,  however;  and  the 
General  came  forth  of  them  woe-worn  and 
shaken,  and  with  the  thought  in  his  soul  that 
she  perished  by  the  venom  of  his  enemies,  who 
had  struck  at  his  fortunes  by  striking  at  her 
pure  repute. 

After  his  wife  died  I  had  been  in  the  grip 
of  sore  concern  for  the  General.  He  was  but 
a  frail  man  at  his  best;  he  carried  lead  in  his 
shoulder  and  lead  in  his  side — private  bullets 
stopped  in  private  wars,  truly,  yet  no  less 
perilous  for  that — and  when  on  these,  plus  the 
angry  work  and  wrath  of  a  campaign,  was  laid 
this  funeral  farther  load,  I  say,  I  trembled  for 
the  upcome. 

Our  way  to  Washington  was  to  be  by  the 
Cumberland  and  the  Ohio  to  Pittsburg,  and 
then  overland  through  the  mountains,  and  so 
along  the  Potomac.  All  Tennessee  seemed 
come  to  Nashville  when  we  went  aboard  ;  I 
helping  the  General — whose  weakness  was  so 
24 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG     O'NEAL 

great  he  must,  despite  vanity,  lean  visibly  on 
my  support. 

As  he  sank  exhausted  into  a  chair,  and 
the  boat  backed  off  the  levee,  I  was  in  black- 
ness for  the  gloom  I  felt.  I  believed  he  would 
not  live  to  see  Washington,  but  fall  by  the 
way ;  I  in  no  sort  presupposed  those  eight  tre- 
mendous years  when  the  White  House  would 
be  to  the  common  folk  as  a  temple,  with  him 
the  idle  of  their  adoration.  I  could  not  fore- 
see his  mavelous  two  presidencies,  and  how, 
his  name  brightening  with  each  added  sun 
and  followed  by  every  eye,  he  would  retire 
again  to  privacy  and  his  Hermitage,  the  best 
beloved  since  the  even  day  of  Jefferson. 

And  now  as  I  talk  to  you  the  tears  start. 
He  is  dead  as  I  write,  and  gone  long  ago  to  join 
his  heart  in  the  grave  and  lie  by  the  side  of  his 
wife;  and  it  comes  strangely,  even  to  myself 
that  I,  an  old  man,  and  held  as  one  hard  and 
practical  and  cold,  should  be  so  moved  of  retro- 
spection. If  it  were  to  remember  loss  and  sad- 
ness and  decay,  such  indeed  might  stand  as 
reason  for  emotion.  But  my  rearward  glances 
find  only  the  glory  of  an  ever-climbing,  sky- 
kissed  high  success.  Mayhap  it  is  the  splendor 
and  white  gleam  of  it  to  bring  the  tears,  as 
does  the  glint  of  sunshine  on  the  snow. 

Yet  it  half  shames  my  years,  these    drops 
25 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

of  feeling.  And  for  all  that,  I  well  recall  how 
Dale  and  Overton  and  Houston  and  Blair — 
no  meek  souls,  these ! — were  as  much  corn- 
moved  when  claimed  of  thoughts  of  General 
Jackson; — such,  for  his  friends,  were  the  soft 
and  softening  spells  and  powers  of  the  man! 
The  wet  eyes  of  these,  stern  and  rock-hewn, 
may  save  me  from  the  stain  of  doting  weak- 
ness. But  I  loiter — I  lose  time  when  there  is 
none  to  lose — a  wandering  delay  is  the  crime 
common  of  old  age. 

Our  journey  to  Washington  was  disputed 
by  applause  at  every  foot ;  the  double  banks 
of  the  Cumberland  and  the  Ohio  appeared  to 
have  become  alike  the  rendezvous  of  South 
and  West  and  North.  Bands  brayed  and 
"committees"  came  aboard;  a  dozen  times 
was  the  boat  tied  up  and  the  General  borne 
ashore  as  on  a  wave  to  greet  and  be  greeted 
of  roaring  thousands  who  hailed  him  their 
Messiah  of  politics  and  one  come  for  their 
redemption.  From  the  first  our  progress  was 
hedged  and  canopied  of  the  never-ceasing 
shout,  "Hurrah!  for  Jackson!"  Night  and 
day  it  was  in  our  ears,  and  our  very  sleep  gave 
way  and  fled  before  it. 

To  say  that  through  this  I  held  no  alarms 
for  the  General  would  be  but  an  idle  picture 
of  my  feelings.  Verily !  I  more  than  once 

26 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

found  my  heart  in  my  mouth  lest  the  gusty 
multitude  that  struggled  and  fought  to  touch 
his  hand  should  kill  him  for  mere  kindness. 

And  yet  he  would  thrive  and  be  fat  upon 
it,  if  such  word  by  any  padding  of  hyperbole 
may  be  made  to  fit  his  slim  meagerness.  His 
gray  eye  would  light,  his  lean  cheek  show  a 
color,  his  milky  bristle  of  hair  turn  more 
stiffly,  jauntily  spinous  with  each  of  these  en- 
counters. When  I  would  remonstrate  and  cite 
his  sick  weakness  to  forbid,  he  would  shake 
his  head  and  smile — his  closest  journey  to  a 
laugh.  Then  he  would  say : 

"  Major,  you  don't  know  me  I  These 
shoutings  are  as  medicine  in  wine.  These 
people  love  me ;  I  take  strength  from  their 
hands;  their  applause  is  my  food  and  I  live 
and  grow  heavy  by  it." 

And  so  this  boisterousness  of  endorse- 
ment went  on ;  and  the  General  reveled  while 
I  sat  sour  with  terror  lest  from  it  he  sicken 
and  die,  stricken  by  the  very  evidences  of  his 
popularity.  He  was  right  and  I  was  wrong; 
he  came  from  this  general  joy,  which  with 
every  hour  arose  and  laid  actual  hands  upon 
him,  as  one  remade. 

Some  pages  back  I  pitched  upon  the  four- 
teenth as  a  day  much  in  my  mind,  and  the 
fourth  since  we  came  upon  the  capital.  I 

27 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

begin  narration  properly  with  that  day,  re- 
garding what  has  gone  before  as  preliminary 
and  given  for  a  clearer  knowledge  of  that 
which  is  to  follow  as  it  unfolds. 

There  were  matters  to  take  place  upon 
the  fourteenth  which  served  to  fix  it  in  my 
memory.  The  first  was  a  mishap  to  the  Gen- 
eral himself. 

For  the  rain  and  the  mist  and  the  mire, 
we  that  day  found  ourselves  much  confined  to 
the  Indian  Queen.  This  might  be  called  no 
hardship  of  loneliness  since,  despite  the  mud, 
all  the  world  would  pull  on  its  boots  to  visit 
us.  The  General,  whose  dyspepsia  was  domi- 
nant, had  eaten  only  a  little  rice.  This  he  took 
at  short  intervals;  yet  such  dwarf  spoonfuls 
were  they,  that  in  the  end  the  aggregate  was 
smallish,  and  he  found  himself  weakly  languid 
as  a  reward. 

The  General  had  been  to  a  casual  recep- 
tion below  to  meet  official  folk — they  were 
building  hopes  for  themselves  of  what  should 
follow  inauguration,  still  eighteen  days  away — 
and  being  done  with  them,  and  uneasy  with 
the  weariness  of  their  call,  was  returning  to 
his  room.  At  the  stair's  -head  he  stumbled; 
as  he  fell  he  griped  his  side  and  gave  a 
smothered  sob  of  pain. 

I,  who  walked  close  behind,  was  well  aware 
28 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

of  what  had  chanced.  The  old  Dickenson 
wound  was  imperfectly  healed,  and  a  sharp 
wrench  would  tear  it  and  set  it  to  inward 
hemorrhage.  Swiftly  I  raised  him,  and  since 
it  was  no  vast  distance  down  the  hall,  nor  he  a 
mighty  burden,  carried  him  to  his  chamber. 

"  Call  Augustus,"  he  said,  his  voice  pain- 
lowered  to  a  whisper. 

Placing  a  chair  I  gave  him  a  mouthful  of 
whisky  by  way  of  a  stimulant.  Augustus  was 
the  black  body-servant  who  had  come  with  us 
from  the  Hermitage.  I  knew  what  the  sum- 
moning of  Augustus  argued,  yet  was  handless 
to  interfere.  The  General  when  stricken — as 
he  had  been  many  times — in  the  fashion  I  have 
named,  was  used  to  open  a  vein,  and  so  bleed 
himself  comfortably  till  he  felt  relief.  More 
than  once  I  had  denounced  such  backwoods 
surgery  as  not  only  dangerous  but  revolting, 
and  wanting  foundations  of  common  sense. 
There  was  no  logic  for  it,  I  said ;  and  it  stood 
for  the  spirit  of  the  preposterous  when  one 
bled  internally  to  bleed  one's  self  externally  as 
remedy.  As  well  might  I  have  spoken  with 
the  trees.  The  General  made  his  stubborn 
laws  and  lived  them. 

"There  was  a  Frenchman,"  observed  the 
General  on  some  occasion  of  my  remonstrance, 
"who  said  that  at  forty  every  man  was  either 

29 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

a   fool   or   a   doctor.     Now  I   am   more   than 
forty;  and  I'm  no  fool." 

Augustus,  a  tawny,  handsome  black,  ar- 
rived in  a  hurry  splendidly  promissory  of  zeal. 
Being  deft  of  practice,  he  whipped  a  bandage 
sharply  tight  about  the  General's  arm  above 
the  elbow — as  starved  as  a  rake-handle,  that 
arm,  yet  strong  as  hickory  bough !  Then  the 
General  with  his  jackknife  nicked  a  vein  well 
down  the  lower  arm,  and  proceeded  to  bleed 
himself  most  contentedly  and  liberally,  while 
Augustus  held  a  basin. 

Following  these  horse-leech  experiments, 
for  so  I  scrupled  not  to  brand  them,  the  Gen- 
eral, wrapped  in  a  dressing  gown,  was  put  to 
rest  upon  a  sofa.  It  would  have  been  the  bed; 
but  it  stood  not  yet  three  of  the  afternoon, 
and  it  was  a  saying  of  the  General's  that  no 
man  should  take  to  his  'bed  by  daylight  until 
he  came  to  die.  On  the  lounge,  and,  as  he 
declared,  much  uplifted  of  health,  Augustus 
and  I  left  him,  with  the  whisky  easily  at  hand 
in  event  of  over-creeping  faintness. 

After  the  lapse  of  an  hour  I  returned. 
There  lay  that  upon  me  which,  as  I  saw  the 
future,  it  was  proper  enough  should  be  said 
to  the  General.  And  since  he  was  like  to 
oppose  my  counsel,  as  folk  commonly  do  what 
is  patent  for  their  peace,  sticking  as  stoutly 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

for  the  seeds  of  trouble  as  though  they  were 
indeed  the  seeds  of  righteousness,  I  reckoned 
aid  perhaps  from  his  present  weak,  low  state. 
He  would  lack  somewhat  his  vivacity,  and 
might  be  drawn  with  less  of  struggle  to  my 
manner  of  thought. 

Thus  abode  the  coil:  It  was  the  evening 
before  when  the  General  told  me  how  he  would 
propose  Eaton  to  be  his  Secretary  of  War,  and 
asked  my  view.  I  had  withheld  opinion  at  the 
time,  my  caution  evoking  a  dull  flare  of  that 
heat-lightning  of  the  General's  temper,  which 
last  commodity  was  never  deeply  in  abeyance. 
I  would  tell  him  later,  I  said ;  and  following  a 
rumble  of  contempt  on  his  part  for  the  slug- 
gishness of  my  friendship  for  Eaton — for  that 
gentleman  and  I  for  long  had  been  friends — 
the  subject  was  for  the  moment  at  rest.  Now 
was  the  time  ripe  to  dispute  this  question  with 
him;  so  I  bethought,  as  I  wended  towards  his 
door. 

Coming  to  his  chamber  I  tapped,  and  then 
pushed  in  without  wait,  as  was  my  wont.  The 
windows  were  to  the  west  where  at  this  hour 
the  sun  should  have  been ;  but  such  was  the  veil 
of  fog  without  that  the  day  seemed  already 
spent  and  sinking  into  twilight. 

The  great  fire  on  the  hearth — honest, 
crackling  logs  to  feed  it,  since  the  General 

3* 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

would  tolerate  no  less — set  the  room  in  a 
bloom  of  light  that  came  close  to  marking  the 
candle  that  burned  at  his  elbow  a  profligacy. 
He  had  lifted  himself  from  the  sofa  where 
Augustus  and  I  placed  him,  and  was  seated 
before  a  little  table.  On  it,  propped  against 
the  Vicar  of  Wakefidd,  a  book  whereof  he  never 
tired,  stood  a  miniature  of  his  wife.  Through- 
out the  day  he  wore  this  little  painting  beneath 
his  garments  and  hung  about  his  neck  by  a 
black  cord.  His  wife  had  given  it  him  in  the 
old  days  and  when  their  love  was  new.  Each 
night,  when  folk  pray  and  con  the  Bible,  he 
would  have  this  picture  before  him;  and  with 
it  her  hymn-book  to  read  her  favorite  songs. 
This  was  his  devotion — his  worship ;  it  was  as 
though  he  communed  with  her,  his  Saint 
Rachel,  on  the  work  of  the  day  and  its  duties. 
To  the  time  of  his  death  he  did  this;  and  for 
whatever  was  good  of  his  performing  he  would 
lay  it  to  these  conferences,  sweet  at  once  and 
sad,  when  in  the  dusk  borderlands  of  day  and 
night  he  met  and  talked  with  the  soft  shadow 
of  his  heart's  own. 

As  I  came  into  the  room  the  General 
raised  his  eyes.  They  were  tear-brimmed  and 
he  made  no  shift  to  hide  them. 

"Major,"  he  said  with  trembling  lip, 
gazing  the  while  on  the  miniature,  "she  strove 

3* 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

to  make  me  a  Christian.  I  gave  her  my 
promise  to  become  a  Christian.  And  so  I 
shall  when  once  I'm  done  with  office  and  back 
again  at  home.  I  would  become  one  now, 
were  it  within  the  domain  of  what  might  be. 
But  who  is  he  who  could  unite  politics  and 
Christ?  I'm  no  hypocrite,  Major;  you  know 
that!  You  know  what  a  politician  is;  you 
know  what  a  Christian  should  be.  No  man 
may  be  both,  Major;  no  man  may  be  both." 

"You  are  not  a  politician,"  I  retorted. 
"You  are  a  president." 

This  I  got  off  with  a  gruff  air  of  harshness, 
not,  however,  because  it  drew  a  true  distinc- 
tion. I  sought  to  call  him  from  his  present 
mood.  The  General  was  unusual  in  so  far  that 
a  best  step  towards  comforting  him  was  to 
irritate  him.  In  his  breast  he  loved  collision, 
and  might  even  leave  mourning  for  a  war. 

"I  am  a  president  and  not  a  politician!" 
This  with  a  gather  of  scorn.  "And  pray,  when 
is  a  president  not  a  politician?" 

With  a  deprecatory  gesture  I  dismissed 
the  point. 

"Let  that  remain,"  I  replied,  "as  a  ques- 
tion wherewith  to  rack  some  further  moment. 
I  came  for  another  matter."  The  General 
turned  a  keen  eye  upon  me.  "You  spoke  of 
Eaton  for  your  portfolio  of  war,"  I  continued. 
3  33 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  Have  you  considered  what  objection  might 
lodge  against  such  course?" 

"Go  on,"  he  said. 

"General,  I  misdoubt  the  wisdom  of  the 
step.  I  will  make  my  word  plain.  There  is 
none  to  be  more  the  friend  of  Eaton  than 
myself,  none  to  respect  him  more.  But,  sir, 
you  are  aware  of  what  folk  say." 

"And  what  do  folk  say?"  Anger  stood 
red  on  the  brow  of  the  General  as  a  banner  is 
flung  from  a  battlement.  "What  do  folk 
say?" 

"You  should  consider  coolly,  General,"  I 
went  on.  Ever  cool  myself,  it  was  for  that  the 
General  valued  my  counsel.  "You  know  this 
tale  as  well  as  I.  It  has  been  told  me  more 
than  once  within  four  days.  Light  and  laugh- 
ter-loving, the  beautiful  Peg  O'Neal  grows  up, 
the  daughter  of  this  very  tavern  that  shelters 
us.  She  weds  Timberlake,  the  purser.  He  is 
here ;  then  he  is  at  sea.  The  girlish  Peg  is  still 
a  girl.  She  goes  to  rout  and  ball;  she  is  gay 
and  high  and  does  not  mope  and  wear  demure 
half-weeds  as  good  opinion  holds  one  should 
whose  love  is  on  the  sea  among  the  storms. 
There  come  whisper  and  nod  and  innuendo — 
the  pot  of  Washington  scandal,  they  tell  me, 
is  made  easily  to  boil.  Then  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean Timberlake  cuts  his  throat;  and  next, 

34 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

as  one  who  makes  sure  work,  leaps  overboard 
into  fifty  fathoms.  The  beautiful  Peg  does  not 
become  distinguished  for  her  grief.  This,  and 
the  throat-cutting,  augment  talk,  and  tongues 
wag  doubly.  Within  the  year  thereafter,  and 
not  two  months  ago,  she  and  our  friend  Eaton 
are  wed.  Gossip  gains  a  new  impulse;  heads 
nod  and  there  are  wise  leers.  I  put  this  to 
you,  General,  with  a  rude  coarseness  almost 
ferocious;  I  do  so  for  a  purpose.  I  put  it  as 
your  enemies  will  put  it  when,  should  you  call 
Eaton  to  your  cabinet,  they  seize  on  the  story 
to  your  injury.  It  is  not  what  you  and  I  say 
or  believe;  that  is  not  the  question.  It  is  what 
will  your  enemies  tell  and  the  world  accept." 

While  I  was  talking,  the  General  filled  a 
clay  pipe;  in  tobacco  he  found  calm.  Holding 
the  pipe  by  its  long  reed  stem  he  strode  up 
and  down,  puffing  cloudily.  The  red  faded  on 
his  forehead,  but  his  eyes  were  agate-hard.  I 
saw  it  would  be  Eaton  against  argument.  The 
General's  will  was  set  as  hard  and  fast  and  cold 
as  arctic  ice. 

Nor,  to  be  fully  honest,  was  I  over-sur- 
prised or  sensibly  cast  down;  I  had  fairly 
foreseen  it  all.  You  may  question  why,  then, 
I  made  this  vigorous  head;  and  Eaton  my 
friend. 

It   is    a   proper   curiosity.     Freely,  I   am 
35 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

constrained,  as  I  review  the  past,  to  regard 
myself  as  sometimes  the  victim  of  self-foolery. 
On  this  February  evening  with  the  General,  I 
make  no  doubt  but  I  thought  I  acted  wholly 
for  his  weal  and  peace.  And  yet  I  was  clear 
before  I  spoke,  how  my  words  would  win  to  no 
effect,  and  Eaton  for  the  cabinet  it  would  be. 
Thus,  I  now  see  that  my  impulse,  indubitably, 
was  one  wholly  of  vanity;  as  the  friend  priv- 
ileged to  frankness  and  who — as  he  said 
many  times  and  until  I  consented  to  the  fact 
myself — more  than  any  other  had  builded  him 
up  to  be  a  president,  I  would  tell  my  mind,  air 
my  gifts  of  prophecy,  and  arrange  myself  for 
a  future  wherein  the  General  might  say,  when 
the  winds  blew  high,  "You  saw  the  tempest 
coming  and  you  told  me."  That,  as  I  now 
see,  was  the  very  conceited,  small,  cheap  reason 
of  my  interference;  although  at  the  time  I  in 
no  sort  beheld  it  by  that  light,  but  felt  some- 
what noble  and  high  and  as  might  a  loyal 
friend. 

The  General  for  ten  full  minutes  smoked 
up  and  down,  I  silent,  and  the  room  otherwise 
still  save  for  the  tick-ticking  of  the  clock.  At 
last  he  spoke  smilingly  and  off  to  one  side. 

"You  remember  that  sagacious  doctor 
who  was  yesterday  called  from  Baltimore  to 
amend  me  after  my  journey?  Til  do  anything 

36 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

you  say,'  I  told  him,  '  save  give  up  coffee  and 
tobacco.'  'Then  you'll  die,'  he  retorted,  'since 
it  is  coffee  and  tobacco  which  are  killing  you.' 
'Then  I'll  die,'  I  replied,  'since  coffee  and 
tobacco  are  all  that  are  left  worth  living  for.' 
He  quit  the  place  in  a  fury  of  heat,  did  that 
doctor." 

The  General  grinned.  There  was  another 
pause;  then  he  swung  back  to  my  Eaton  warn- 
ing, while  his  face  again  showed  grave  and 
firm. 

"  Sir,  Mrs.  Eaton — Peg,  as  we  call  her — is 
as  spotless  as  a  star.  My  wife  knew  her,  loved 
her."  His  tone  was  tender,  while  his  glance 
sought  the  miniature  where  from  the  table  it 
followed  him  up  and  down  with  its  eyes. 
"Timberlake's  habits  were  unfortunate;  his 
suicide  was  due  to  that.  There  was  never  a 
doubt  of  Peg  in  his  soul;  never  a  question  of 
her  conduct.  I  know  this;  I  do  not  guess. 
What!" — here  his  voice  began  to  rise  with 
choler — "what!  are  we  to  guide  by  nameless 
slanders?  Eaton  is  my  friend,  honorable,  high 
of  mind,  honorably  married  to  the  woman  he 
loves!  I  will  not,  by  anything  I  do  or  fail  to 
do,  arm  villification.  Into  my  cabinet  he  goes 
though  every  bow  in  hell  be  bent  against  it." 

Smash!  went  the  General's  pipe  upon  the 
hearth.  It  was  the  manner  of  the  man  when 

37 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

driven  of  anger.  First  and  last  he  smashed 
pipes  by  the  gross. 

"That  is  not  the  song  of  it  I"  I  stub- 
bornly protested. 

Then  I  put  out  what  was  true;  that  he 
should  look  at  this  thing  from  the  point  of  his 
presidency.  There  was  the  public  interest;  his 
faith  to  the  public  must  be  dwelt  on. 

"If  there  be  a  faith  to  the  public,"  he 
retorted,  "there  is  also  a  faith  to  a  friend.  It 
is  a  widest  rumor  that  Eaton  is  to  be  of  my 
cabinet.  Folk  are  morally  sure  of  it  as  much 
as  folk  may  be  of  what  sits  in  the  antechamber 
of  time.  Should  he  not  be  named,  that  fact  will 
be  held  as  an  endorsement  of  these  slanders. 
It  will  destroy  Eaton;  worse,  it  will  destroy 
Peg.  Do  you  counsel  that?  Must  that  be 
done  in  the  name  of  Public  Good?"  The 
General  now  was  speaking  in  a  cold,  contained 
way  for  all  his  late  pipe-smashing,  and  you  are 
not  to  infer,  from  any  verbal  force  displayed, 
a  shouting  anger.  Wroth  he  was;  but,  nathe- 
less,  low-voiced  and  steady  as  with  a  kind  of 
tranquility  of  fury.  "  Must  my  friend  be 
abased,  insulted — must  a  sweet,  true  woman 
suffer  harm  for  that  you  say  a  public  interest 
asks  it?  Sir,  you  speak  folly  and  propose  dis- 
grace. There  can  be  no  public  good  to  come 
from  private  wrong.  And  if  it  were  so,  still  I 

38 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

should  stand  the  same.  I've  suffered  many 
tests  for  the  public  you  prate  of;  I've  abode  the 
death-chances  of  a  hundred  battles;  I've 
marched  to  the  public's  wars  when,  spent  and 
weak,  I  must  be  lifted  to  the  saddle;  in  no 
way  have  I  spared  or  saved  myself.  But  I  will 
spare  my  friend;  I'll  save  a  woman's  honor; 
aye!  spare  and  save  them  though  your  public 
interest  perish  in  their  steads.  You  could 
name  no  altar  whereon  I  would  make  such 
sacrifices.  The  honor  of  a  woman — to  safe- 
guard her  good  fame — is  the  first  duty  of  a 
man.  It  is  before  friendship,  before  patriot- 
ism; it  has  precedence  over  things  public  or 
private.  What  you  offer  spells  ruin  for  a 
woman — ruin  for  Peg  whom  my  wife  has  loved 
and  kissed!  I  will  not  do  it.  I  say  it  again: 
Eaton  for  the  cabinet  it  should  be  though  it 
were  the  last  act  of  my  life.  More;  if  I  were 
capable  of  beginning  my  administration  with 
treason  to  a  friend,  I  might  surely  look  to 
conclude  it  with  treason  to  the  people." 

You  are  to  know  that  the  General  made 
these  long  orations  walking  the  floor,  and  in  a 
manner  jerky  and  declamatory,  though  not 
loud.  There  might  be  spaces  of  silerice  be- 
tween sentences  measured  by  two  and  three 
steps ;  and  much  of  the  time  his  eye  left  me 
and  he  was  like  one  who  debates  with  himself. 

39 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

I  ramble  off  his  utterances  somewhat  in  full; 
for  I  not  only  regard  the  sentiments  expressed 
as  creditable  to  the  General  himself,  but  am 
disposed  to  give  you  the  truth  of  him  as  one 
who,  while  right  oftener  than  most  men,  and  as 
set  for  justice  as  a  pair  of  scales,  on  this  as  on 
every  other  strong  occasion  did  his  thinking 
with  his  heart.  Also,  while  he  never  said  the 
word,  it  ran  in  him  like  a  torrent  that  his  wife, 
were  she  with  him,  would  shield  poor  Peg 
at  whatever  /vital  cost ;  and  of  itself  that  was 
equal  to  the  sweeping  down  of  reasons  strong 
as  oak  or  adamant. 

Who  was  the  un-observer  to  say  that 
familiarity  breeds  contempt?  He  went  wide 
of  the  truth ;  he  should  have  said  that  familiarity 
breeds  self-confidence.  Now  I  knew  the  Gen- 
eral— I  knew  the  windings  of  his  thought  as  one 
knows  his  way  about  a  house.  Folk  called 
him  a  hero ;  he  was  never  so  to  me.  And  yet, 
more  than  any,  I  knew  him  to  be  even  better 
and  braver  and  broader  than  was  his  fame  in 
the  worshiping  mouths  of  ones  who  uplifted 
him  to  be  a  god.  No,  the  General  and  I 
neither  looked  up  nor  looked  down  when  we 
dealt  with  one  another ;  we  met  ever  on  level 
terms.  He  was  president,  or  shortly  would  be ; 
but  what  then?  As  he  himself  said,  "The 
presidency  is  a  condition,  not  an  attribute,  as 
40 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

it  might  be  a  malady  or  a  fortune,  an  evil  or  a 
good.  And  if  I  am  King  are  you  not  War- 
wick?" This  last  was  his  way  of  phrasing  it 
when,  a  year  or  so  later,  I  told  him  of  some 
overheard  amazement  concerning  the  easy, 
old-shoe  terms  on  which  I  lived  with  him. 

Such  being  our  attitudes  one  to  the  other, 
the  General's  oral  exaltations — while  I  identi- 
fied them  for  honest  and  as  from  his  soul's 
soul — struck  on  me  as  more  florid  than  was 
called  for  by  an  interview,  private  and  common- 
place, between  us  two.  But  it  was  the  nature 
of  him ;  his  surface  could  be  made  to  toss  like 
some  tempest-bitten  ocean,  while  his  steady 
depths  were  calm.  This  may  explain,  if  it 
does  not  excuse,  that  while  he  thus  walked 
about,  raging  and  eloquent,  I  listened  with  a 
bit  of  impatience,  helping  myself  meanwhile 
to  a  mouthful  of  whisky  and  filling  a  pipe  of 
my  own. 

"  Say  no  more,"  I  observed,  having  ad- 
vantage of  a  pause ;  "  say  no  more.  Eaton 
you  will  have  it,  and  Eaton  it  shall  be.  But, 
on  the  whole,  do  you  call  it  good  to  your  Peg? 
Do  you  call  it  wise  or  friendly  to  put  her 
forth  to  be  the  target  for  every  bolt  of  de- 
traction?" 

The  General  drew  over  to  the  fire  and 
sat  down.  Slowly  he  poured  himself  a  glass 

4* 


PEGGY        O  NEAL 

of  spirits,  and  then  as  slowly  drank  it  off.    For 
some  moments  he  smoked  in  silence. 

"  What  with  this  wrong  to  my  side,  Major," 
he  said  at  last,  "  and  the  blood  I've  let,  and  all 
on  a  pale  diet  of  rice,  I  fear  I'm  not  strong 
enough  to  argue  with  you.  Let  us  agree,  then, 
that  Eaton  shall  go  in  as  Secretary  of  War.  As 
for  Peg — poor  little  Peg  ! — why  should  she  be 
safer  out  than  in  ?  Moreover,  a  woman  must 
have  her  courage  as  a  man  has  his.  She  must 
risk  slander  as  he  risks  sword,  and  both  must 
front  their  enemies."  He  had  gone  on  with  a 
mighty  mildness ;  now  he  began  to  wave  his 
second  pipe,  and  I  looked  to  have  it  go  into  the 
fireplace  with  every  word.  "  You  say  that  the 
Eatons  will  be  assailed.  Already  they  are  at- 
tacked ;  not  for  themselves,  but  for  me.  They 
were  married  in  January ;  none  found  fault  until, 
with  our  coming,  Eaton's  nearness  to  me  was 
remembered  and  the  whisper  of  what  I  would 
do  with  him  began  to  run  abroad.  The  Eatons 
are  the  victims  of  my  feuds ;  it  is  I,  through 
them,  who  am  stabbed  at.  Sir," — smash ! 
went  the  pipe  and  the  General  started  up — 
"sir,  it  is  the  work  of  Henry  Clay — that 
creature  of  bargain  and  corruption  1  You 
know  his  methods  of  the  past  campaign. 
What  lie  was  too  vile  to  tell  ?  What  calumny 
too  gross?  Who  so  innocent  as  to  escape  his 
42 


THE    LUSTROUS    PEG    O'NEAL 

malice?  Why,  sir!  such  as  Clay  and  his  crew 
would  befoul  Gehenna,  and  Satan  himself 
might  shrink  aside  in  shame  from  their  com- 
panionship! Who  was  sure  from  them  and 
the  poison  of  their  mendacity?  She  died  by 
it" — here  he  pointed  to  the  miniature.  "  Even 
the  poor  lost  grave  of  my  mother  was  not 
sacred  to  such  jackals.  And  now  it  is  the 
Batons — now  it  is  the  pretty,  harmless  Peg! 
So  let  it  be ;  they  will  find  me  ready.  If  I  feel 
joy  for  a  presidency  it  is  because  it  clothes  my 
hands  for  their  annihilation." 

There  was  a  rap  at  the  door.  Augustus 
opened  it  and  announced:  "  General  Green." 

"  Duff  Green,"  said  the  General,  as  though 
a  new  thought  occurred.  "  I  think  now  for 
once,  in  a  way  I  shall  turn  our  rotund  friend 
to  partial  use." 

"  And  how  will  you  compass  that  miracle?" 
I  spoke  rather  in  scorn  than  curiosity  since  I 
owned  to  briefest  admiration  for  the  General's 
caller.  "  It  will  be  a  novelty  to  see  your  Duff 
Green  of  use." 

"Why  then,"  returned  the  General,  "the 
benefit  I  propose  from  him  is  one  simple 
enough.  I  shall  have  him,  in  his  paper,  give 
this  cabinet  list  to  the  public.  Once  in  print 
the  thing  is  ended — the  nails  for  that  cabinet 
building  will  be  clinched." 

43 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"And  that  is  it,"  cried  I,  in  opposition. 
"  Now  to  my  notion  it  is  ever  best  to  hold  a 
question  of  this  sort  in  abeyance  until  the  lat- 
est moment.  Thereby  you  preserve  for  your- 
self room  wherein  to  change  your  plan." 

"  One's  first  aim  is  the  surest,"  responded 
the  General.  "  Now  I've  never  known  much 
good  to  come  from  this  plan-changing  of 
which  you  talk.  Nor  do  I  believe  in  secrets. 
One  should  tell  the  people  their  business  so  soon 
as  ever  that  business  is  transacted.  More  folk 
are  trapped  and  slain  with  their  own  secrets 
than  are  saved  by  them.  Besides  one  has  no 
right  to  lock  a  door  between  the  people  and 
their  affairs.  There  go  but  two  keys  with 
government,  one  for  the  treasury  and  the  other 
for  the  gaol,  and  every  officer  from  path-master 
to  President  should  be  made  to  study  this 
lesson  of  the  keys  until  he  can  repeat  it." 

To  this  lecture  I  made  no  retort  whether 
of  comment,  denial  or  agreement.  These 
abstractions  delighted  him  ;  and  in  this  instance 
I  too  listened  with  pleasure,  not  so  much  be- 
cause of  the  deep-sea  wisdom  disclosed  as  for 
that  tranquility  of  spirit  after  his  tossing  anger 
against  Clay,  which  their  utterance  would  seem 
to  bring  him.  As  it  stood  the  General's  high 
temper  had  faded  and  his  heat  was  much  cooled 
away  when  Duff  Green  appeared. 

44 


CHAPTER  II 

PORT    WINE     DUFF     AND     PIGEON-BREAST 

Duff  Green  was  a  round,  insincere,  self- 
seeking,  suave,  smooth,  porpoise-body  of  a 
personage,  small  of  eye,  hair  age-streaked,  a 
port  wine  voice,  wide  mouth,  and  nose  of 
friendly  hue.  He  had  come  to  town  the  year 
before,  poor  and  modest,  and  bartered  himself 
into  possession  of  the  Telegraph,  a  leading 
journal  of  the  capital.  He  prospered,  and 
prosperity  had  swollen  him.  Nor  was  he  with- 
out some  tincture  of  shrewdness ;  for  he  owned 
the  wit  in  the  late  elections  to  support  the 
General,  and  now  would  wax  pompous  and 
come  forward  because  of  it.  I  did  not  like 
him,  holding  him  selfish  and  withal  weak ;  be- 
sides, his  affable  complacency  offended  me. 

The  General  would  defend  Duff  Green, 
although  I  am  sure  he  had  his  measure  from 
the  start.  The  General,  retorting  to  my 
charge  of  selfishness  and  vanity,  would  say: 
"Of  course,  Duff's  selfish;  that's  why  I  enjoy 
him.  I  like  selfish  folk ;  they  are  easy  to  un- 
derstand, easy  to  start  or  stop.  One  has  but 
to  bait  his  trap  with  their  interest  and,  presto! 

45 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

there  they  are  in  the  morning  caught  sharp 
and  fast  for  his  use.  And  again,  your  selfish 
folk  are  content  with  much  less  than  will  suffice 
your  disinterested  folk  who  truly  love  you." 
This  was  one  of  the  General's  efforts  at  sar- 
casm, and  delivered  with  the  sly  flicker  of  a 
smile. 

"  But  the  smug  vanity  of  Duff  Green  1"  I 
would  urge.  "I  could  wish  you  half  so  tre- 
mendous as  he  deems  himself." 

"Fie!  Major,  fie!"  would  be  the  reply; 
"vanity  is  the  powder  in  the  gun,  the  impulse 
that  sends  the  bullet  home.  It  is  the  sails  of 
the  ship  and  the  reason  of  motion  to  that  hull 
of  merit  which  might  make  no  voyage  without. 
Vanity  has  won  more  battles  than  patriotism ; 
wanting  vanity,  Caesar  would  have  crossed  no 
Rubicon,  and  Napoleon  would  have  begun,  not 
ended,  with  Waterloo." 

This  fashion  of  bicker  fell  often  forth 
between  the  General  and  myself;  indeed,  we 
were  in  frequent  disagreement,  he  being  one 
who,  while  holding  notions  of  his  own  wisdom, 
was  withal  much  imposed  against  by  pretences 
on  the  false  parts  of  men  whom  I  saw  through 
as  through  a  ladder;  and  so  I  told  him. 

"Ah !  excellent  evening,  Mr.  President ! 
excellent  evening,  Major — ah!"  exclaimed  Duff 
Green,  his  friendly  nose  aflame,  and  port  wine 

46 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

tones,  satisfied  and  unctuous.  Coming  for- 
ward, he  took  first  the  General's  hand  and 
then  mine.  For  all  the  warmth  of  his  coun- 
tenance, his  hand  had  the  cold  feel  of  a  fish, 
and  I  did  not,  myself,  insist  on  its  retention 
beyond  the  plain  limits  of  politeness.  "Excel- 
lent evening,  Mr.  President,"  he  repeated, 
glowing  the  while,  in  anticipation  doubtless  of 
public  printing  to  come. 

"You  are  not  hard  to  suit  for  your  even- 
ing, Duff,"  returned  the  General,  whose  fault 
it  was  to  be  on  terms  too  common  with  many 
unworthy  of  the  honor.  "Now,  I  call  this  the 
scandalous  evening  of  a  scandalous  day.  I  say 
'scandalous'  because  muddy,"  explained  the 
General. 

In  the  talk  to  follow  it  developed  that  the 
purpose  of  Duff  Green's  visit  was  no  more 
noble  than  to  just  wring  future  patronage  from 
the  General.  Especially  did  our  caller  have 
his  watery  eye  on  the  governorship  of  .Florida, 
a  post,  for  its  palms  and  orange  groves  and 
flowers  and  summer  seas,  and  mayhap  the 
social  life  of  St.  Augustine — aristocratic,  and 
still  on  Spanish  stilts — much  quested ;  and  the 
reason  of  a  deal  of  court  paid  the  General  by 
rich  ones  who,  having  money,  hungered  for  an 
opening  to  its  display.  Duff  Green  even  sug- 
gested, tentatively,  the  name  of  a  certain 

47 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

wealthy  thick-skull.  He  said  the  notable  in 
hand  was  a  prime  friend  of  Calhoun;  that  his 
selection  would  be  held  vastly  a  compliment — 
a  flower  to  his  nose,  indeed ! — by  the  Vice- 
President. 

"Why,  sir!"  observed  the  General,  whose 
familiarity  diminished  as  the  place-hunting 
eagerness  of  the  worthy  Duff  Green  began  to 
gain  expression;  "why,  sir,  the  man  you  tell 
of  lacks  brains.  It  cannot  be ;  say  no  more. 
We'll  find  some  safer  way  to  flatter  the  Vice- 
President  than  by  periling  public  service  in  the 
hands  of  a  weakling." 

"Weakling!"  repeated  Duff  Green,  while 
the  friendly  nose  began  to  bleach;  "weakling! 
Mr.  President,  this  gentleman — this  friend  of 
Calhoun — is  one  of  our  richest  people." 

"Why,  I  believe  he  did  inherit  a  fortune," 
responded  the  General  carelessly;  "or  perhaps 
a  more  proper  phrasing  would  make  the  for- 
tune inherit  him.  But  that  is  scant  reason  why 
he  should  mismanage  a  gravely  important 
trust.  The  governorship  of  Florida  is  not  all 
citron  groves  and  mocking  birds ;  there  is  re- 
sponsible work  to  do;  and  the  territory,  I  teL 
you,  shall  not  be  wasted  by  a  fool.  But  cheer 
up,  Duff," — the  visitor  was  looking  blue  and 
the  hue  of  friendship  had  quite  departed  his 
nose — "  cheer  thou  up  !  Perchance  we  may  yet 

48 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

discover  some  office  wherein  your  ambitious 
wittol  of  wealth — whom  the  Vice-President 
loves ! — may  be  great  without  being  danger- 
ous." 

Duff  Green  was  no  more  urgent  on  the 
point  of  a  Florida  governorship.  He  was  not 
so  dim  but  he  saw  his  failure  and  accepted  it 
with  what  grace  he  might. 

"I  don't  know  how  the  Vice-President 
may  take  it!"  he  murmured  at  the  close. 

"As  to  that,"  said  the  General,  and  his 
words  fell  with  a  suspicious  sharpness,  as  from 
one  smelling  to  a  threat ;  "  as  to  that,  the  Vice- 
President  must  sustain  himself  very  patiently. 
I  know  those  who  would  hold  other  conduct 
on  the  Vice-President's  part  as  excessively  mis- 
placed. They  might  even  teach  the  Vice-Pres- 
ident  a  similar  conclusion.  You  should  tell 
him  that ;  since  I  see  you  act  by  his  request 
and  as  his  agent." 

Here  the  General  looked  hard  at  Duff 
Green.  Already  I  caught  a  shadow  of  those 
jealous  differences  to  come  between  the  Gen- 
eral and  Calhoun — differences  that  would  seem, 
for  the  separation  of  the  White  House  and  the 
Vice-Presidency,  constructed  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. These  offices  never  have  agreed — never 
have  been  true  friends  in  any  administration. 
It  was  the  less  important  in  this  instance,  since, 

49 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

secretly  and  unknown  to  him,  Calhoun  for  over 
a  decade  had  been  the  General's  enemy.  On 
that  February  evening  which  Duff  Green  so 
distinguished  as  "excellent"  the  General  was 
by  no  means  distant  from  the  fact's  discovery. 

"You  do  wrong,  Mr.  President,"  faltered 
Duff  Green,  his  affable  nose  as  pale  as  paper 
now,  "when  you  say  I  am  Calhoun's  agent. 
The  Vice-President  knows  nothing  of  this.  It 
was  by  accident  I  became  aware  of  his  anxiety 
touching  the  Florida  governorship.  I  give 
you  my  honor,  Mr.  President ;  I  give  you  my 
honor!" 

"Let  it  pass;  it's  of  no  mighty  conse- 
quence." Then  impatiently,  "  Don't  call  me 
'Mr.  President'  until  I'm  President.  It  will 
be  bad  enough  after  inauguration,  I  take  it." 

Here  poor  Duff  Green  was  visibly  dis- 
turbed. I  said  nothing  to  relieve  him.  In- 
deed, I  didn't  utter  a  dozen  words  while  he 
remained ;  as  I've  told  you,  I  misliked  Duff 
Green,  with  his  face  the  color  of  a  violin  and 
his  airs  of  fussy  consequence. 

"  But  here,  Duff,"  resumed  the  General, 
coming  himself  to  the  rescue  of  our  visitor, 
who  might  be  described  as  sinking  for  the 
third  and  last  time  in  the  deep  waters  of  his 
own  confusion,  "here,  Duff,  is  something  I 
much  desire  you  to  do.  It  is  a  list  of  the 

50 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND   PIGEON-BREAST 

cabinet  as  I  intend  its  construction  on  the 
hocks  of  my  inaugural.  There  are  reasons  why 
it  should  be  printed;  the  Major" — here  he 
indicated  me,  and  with  a  dry  note  in  his  voice 
which  I  understood — "approves  the  names 
and  thinks  they  should  be  given  to  the  public. 
Get  them  in  the  next  Telegraph.  Here,  I'll 
read  them."  And  the  General  reached  for 
his  horn-framed  glasses  and  began  from  a 
paper  he'd  taken  from  his  pocket.  "Van 
Buren,  Secretary  of  State ;  Ingham,  the  Treas- 
ury; Eaton,  for  the  War  Office."  I  saw  Duff 
Green  look  sharply  up.  Somehow,  while  I 
found  protest  in  his  glance,  I  could  not  believe 
the  promised  cabinet  selection  of  Eaton  un- 
pleasant to  him.  From  that  moment  I  knew 
him  for  no  well-wisher  of  the  General — to  be 
thus  pleased  with  a  prospect  of  hot  water! 
The  General  drove  ahead :  "  Branch  for  the 
Navy ;  Berrien  for  the  Department  of  Justice ; 
and  lastly,  Barry,  Postmaster  General.  There 
you  have  it.  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ten- 
nessee, North  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Ken- 
tucky ;  the  North,  the  West,  and  the  South — 
two  each ;  and  none  for  the  Yankee  East,  since 
to  that  hard  region  where  men,  to  make  them 
smart,  are  raised  on  foxes'  ears  and  thistle 
tops,  I  owe  no  debts.  There  is  the  list.  Let 

51 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

me  see  it  in  print."     And  the  General  placed 
the  paper  in  Duff  Green's  hands. 

The  General  turned  to  fill  his  infallible 
pipe ;  he  would  have  it  ready  to  shatter  into 
smithereens  should  provocation  come.  Duff 
Green  fingered  the  folded  paper  with  timid  air 
while  the  General  fished  for  a  coal  with  the 
little  table  tongs.  For  myself,  I  said  nothing; 
since  it  was  to  be  done,  it  might  as  well  see 
ink — that  cabinet  list.  As  the  General  straight- 
ened his  tall,  slight  form,  his  tobacco-lighting 
accomplished,  Duff  Green,  breathing  pursily 
from  a  dash  of  trepidation,  could  not  forbear 
comment. 

"I  suppose  you  would  like  my  thoughts 
on  this  list?"  Duff  Green  took  care  to  give 
his  supposition  the  rising  turn  of  query. 

"And  why  do  you  suppose  so?"  said  the 
General,  his  tone  something  grim. 

"Only  because  I  supposed  you'd  like  the 
thoughts  of  everybody."  Duff  Green  fawned 
with  his  voice  in  a  half-fright.  It  is  ill  to 
pester  a  lion,  being  no  lion-tamer.  "  I  sup- 
posed you'd  like  the  thoughts  of  everybody," 
he  repeated. 

"Quite  right!"  said  the  General,  pretend- 
ing return  of  sunshine.  "And  what  are  your 
thoughts?" 

52 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

"The  list  will  be  welcome,"  he  answered, 
gaining  confidence  from  the  General's  mollified 
features;  "the  list  will  be  welcome  save  in  one 
particular.  The  selection  for  your  Secretary 
of  War,  Mr.  President — " 

Here  Duff  Green  came  to  a  stop,  utter- 
ance wholly  at  a  halt.  Nor  did  I  blame  him, 
for  now  the  General  gloomed  in  truly  savage 
sort.  The  General  waved  his  pipe ;  but  he 
did  not  break  it.  Probably  he  did  not  think 
Duff  Green  worth  a  pipe. 

"And  what  of  Mr.  Eaton?"  demanded 
the  General  at  last. 

"It's  Mrs.  Eaton,"  gasped  the  other, 
while  his  fear  shook  him  until  he  quaked  like  a 
custard;  "it's  Mrs.  Eaton.  Our  society  will 
not  receive  her ;  that  is,  our  ladies  won't.  Mr. 
President,  she's  a  tavern-keeper's  daughter — 
he  kept  this  identical  Indian  Queen,  as  you 
must  know.  Mrs.  Eaton's  origin  is  too  low 
for  such  station ;  and  besides  they  say — and — 
and — Mr.  President,  really,  our  ladies  won't 
receive  her  into  society."  Duff  Green  ran 
visibly  aground  and  could  go  no  further. 

"Mark  you  this,  Duff  Green,"  and  the 
General's  eyes  sparkled,  while  he  kept  his  voice 
in  hand;  "mark  you  this!  If  a 'low  origin' 
be  the  social  argument,  then  I  am  minded  of 
no  palace  as  the  habitat  of  my  own  bringing 

53 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

up.  But  here  I  tell  you:  I've  not  come  to  the 
White  House  to  be  ruled.  Once  I  was  set  to 
the  defence  of  New  Orleans.  The  society  of 
that  great  city  was  against  me,  and  I  put 
society  under  martial  law ;  a  society  legislature 
was  thereby  shocked,  and  I  dissolved  it;  a 
society  Frenchman  murmured  against  this,  and 
I  marched  him  out  of  town  with  two  bayonets 
at  his  back;  a  society  American  denounced 
the  expulsion,  and  I  clapped  him  in  irons ;  a 
society  judge  issued  a  writ  of  release,  and  I 
arrested  him.  Incidentally,  I  beat  Pakenham 
and  his  English,  and  did  what  I  was  sent  to  do. 
Now  I've  been  ordered  to  Washington  by  the 
public  and  given  duties  to  perform.  I  look  to 
find  here  conditions  of  sympathy  and  friend- 
ship and  support.  If  they  be  not  here,  I'll 
construct  them;  if,  being  here,  they  fail  me, 
I'll  supply  their  places.  Notably,  should  I  get 
up  some  morning  to  discover  myself  without  a 
newspaper" — Duff  Green  sweats  now  and 
pricks  up  his  ears — "  there  shall  one  grow  in- 
stantly from  the  ground  like  any  Jonah's 
gourd.  Your  ladies  will  not  receive  Mrs. 
Eaton  whose  'origin  is  low!'  And  for  that 
cogent  reason  Mr.  Eaton  must  not  be  Secre- 
tary of  War!  Man,  have  I  been  lifted  to  a 
presidency  to  consult  wives  and  gossips  in 
picking  my  constitutional  advisers?  Go ;  print 

54 


PORT   WTNE   DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

that  list — print  it  as  I  give  it  you  ; — go !" 

The  breath  of  the  General's  indignation 
carried  Duff  Green  into  the  hall;  and  even 
when  the  door  was  closed  behind  him,  I  could 
follow  by  ear  as  he  fled  towards  the  stair  with 
a  fat  shuffle  that  told  of  terror. 

"The  man  exhausts  me,"  said  the  General, 
as  he  refilled  his  pipe. 

"I  think  I'll  write  to  Frank  Blair." 
-  "Why?"  and  the  General  looked  up. 

"We  should  have  him  ready  to  start  a 
Jackson  paper  in  Washington  when  Duff  Green 
deserts." 

When  I  turned  out  on  the  next  morning  I 
found  the  fogs  and  mists  of  the  day  before 
departed  and  blown  aside,  and  a  bright  sky 
overhead.  There  was  no  frost ;  but  on  the 
contrary  a  fine  spring  promise  in  the  air  that 
smelled  in  one's  nostril  like  the  breath  of  bud- 
ding trees.  The  roads,  too,  were  more  in  the 
way  of  reform,  and  here  and  there  a  dry  spot 
showed  in  profert  of  what  would  be.  Alto- 
gether it  was  quite  an  April  rather  than  a  Feb- 
ruary morning.  I  finished  shaving  and  dress- 
ing and  called  Jim  to  brush  my  coat.  A  hostler 
before  he  became  a  valet,  Jim  was  used  to 
accompany  these  brush-labors  with  an  aspira- 
tion like  unto  the  escape  of  steam ;  a  sound 
held  sovereign  by  him  for  giving  a  horse's  coat 

55 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

a  gloss,  and  therefore  good  for  mine.  I  had 
gone  forth  in  an  earlier  day  to  break  Jim  of 
these  stable  tricks,  but,  making  no  headway, 
wisely  gave  it  up,  and  Jim  hissed  on  unchecked. 
There  be  things  your  African  won't  learn; 
there  be  things  he  will  learn;  and  effort  to 
suppress  in  the  one  direction  or  excite  enter- 
prise in  the  other,  is  thrown  away.  Aware  on 
these  points,  I  had  taken  years  before  the 
bridle  of  restraint  off  Jim,  and  to  give  him  his 
due  he  went  the  better  with  his  head  free. 

When  brushed  to  fit  Jim's  notion  of  the 
spic  and  span,  I  settled  my  chin  in  my  black 
stock  and  went  to  call  upon  the  General.  I 
would  know  how  he  held  himself  on  the  back 
of  his  bleedings  and  his  wraths  against  Duff 
Green. 

I  found  him  over  a  bowl  of  coffee  and 
with  a  pipe  going ;  he  had  been  up  and  break- 
fasted an  hour  before.  Also,  he  had  gotten 
letters  to  please  him  and  was  in  top  spirits. 

I  recall  looking  at  him  as  I  entered  his 
chamber,  and  thinking,  as  I  noted  his  quick, 
game-cock  air,  full  of  life  and  resolution,  how 
little  he  seemed  that  invalid  who  but  the  even- 
ing before  was  opening  veins  and  lying  ill 
with  old  wounds.  The  difference  would  have 
amazed  any  save  myself,  who  had  seen  too 
much  of  him  to  be  now  astonished.  The 

56 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

General  could  pull  himself  together  like  a 
watch-spring.  Moreover,  he  fed  on  sensation, 
and  a  glow  at  his  heart's  roots  was  better  for 
him  than  a  meal  of  victuals.  I've  borne  witness 
as  he  rode  into  the  wilderness  to  conquer 
Weatherford  and  his  Creeks,  with  a  month- 
old  bullet  in  his  shoulder  and  its  fellow  in  his 
arm.  He  was  so  feeble  and  nigh  death  that 
he  must  be  handed  to  his  saddle  like  a  sack  of 
bran,  and  each  hour  the  surgeons  must  bathe 
him  over  with  sugar-of-lead  water  to  keep  life 
in  his  body.  And  yet,  from  the  outset,  and  on 
bad  food  and  with  the  ground  for  his  bed,  he 
began  to  mend.  The  man  lived  on  sensation, 
I  say,  like  a  babe  on  milk.  %  He  would  walk  up 
and  down  a  line  of  battle  and  be  as  drunk  on 
rifle  smoke  as  any  other  on  brandy. 

When  I  came  into  his  room  I  found  the 
General — pipe  and  coffee  for  the  moment  in  re- 
tirement— to  his  own  evident  satisfaction,  but 
in  a  rusty  raven  voice  I  fear,  humming  The 
Star  Spangled  'Banner.  His  eyes  were  closed. 
He  was  sitting  by  the  fire,  beating  out  the  time 
of  the  music  with  pipe  held  like  a  baton  in  his 
claw-like  hand,  wearing  meanwhile  much  the  air 
of  your  critic  at  an  opera.  His  notes  slipped 
frequently  into  quavers,  and  there  was  constant 
struggle  to  keep  from  lapsing  into  the  savage 
minor  key. 

57 


PEGGY  O          NEAI. 

"  You  make  grewsome  music  for  a  bright 
morning,  General,"  said  I ;  "it  sounds  dolefully 
like  a  wail." 

"That's  a  majestic  tune,  Major,"  he  re- 
plied, opening  his  eyes.  "It  never  fails  to  stir 
me,  and  would  bear  comparison  with  Old 
Hundred,  albeit  one  tells  of  religion  and  the 
other  of  patriotism.  After  all,  what  should  be 
the  separation  between  true  patriotism  and  true 
religion?" 

"  Last  evening,"  I  retorted,  "you  fell  upon 
me  hip  and  thigh  because  I  said  you  were  not 
a  politician  but  a  president ;  you  would  have  it 
that  the  two  were  synonyms  for  each  other. 
Also,  you  declared  that  no  one  might  be  both  a 
politician  and  a  Christian.  Now  you  talk  of 
no  separation  between  patriotism  and  religion. 
General,  you  go  to  bed  in  one  frame  and  get 
up  in  another  ;  you  are  not  consistent." 

"  I'll  not  quarrel  with  you,"  said  he, 
"  though  to  say,  as  you  would  seem  to,  that  a 
president  and  a  patriot  are  ever  the  same,  is 
begging  the  question  and  a  far  shot  from  the 
truth.  I  still  stick  for  it,  however,  that  The 
Star  Spangled  Banner  comes  close  to  religion  in 
its  influence ;  I've  heard  it  given  while  the  big 
guns  were  speaking  at  the  front,  and  I  may  tell 
you,  sir,  it  brought  water  to  my  eyes." 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

I  could  well  believe  this,  for  the  General 
was  as  soon  to  shed  tears  as  a  woman  ;  and 
withal  so  readily  excited  that  on  least  occasion 
his  hand  would  shake  like  ~a  leaf  in  a  ripple  of 
wind.  He  said  the  latter  was  from  coffee  and 
tobacco  and  not  from  natural  nervousness.  He 
was  half  right  and  half  wrong.  This  tremble 
of  the  hands  was  the  vibration  of  that  mighty 
machinery  of  the  man  when  the  belts  were 
thrown  on  for  utter  action.  However,  this  is 
all  aside  the  story. 

The  promulgation  in  Duff  Green's  valued 
imprint  of  the  General's  designs  had  made  a 
stir,  I  warrant  you.  The  capital  community 
seized  on  the  list  of  coming  cabineteers  with 
wondrous  relish.  Delighted  day  by  day  over 
the  tattle  of  office,  the  local  public  sat  up,  one 
and  all,  and  chattered  of  the  printed  names 
like  unto  a  coop  of  catbirds.  Particularly,  I 
might  add,  were  the  Batons  tossed  from  tongue 
to  tongue ;  folk  took  sides,  and  some  assailed 
while  others  defended,  and  no  little  heat  found 
generation.  The  General  admired  the  buzz 
and  clash — for  his  ears  were  open  and  he  heard 
of  it — being  as  fond  of  storms  as  a  petrel ; 
and  for  myself,  I  was  well  enough  pleased.  It 
was  prior  to  my  interview  with  Peg,  you  are  to 
remember,  and  I  not  yet  her  partisan;  I  half 

59 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

hoped  those  resentful  clamors  against  the 
Eatons  would  stay  the  General  at  the  eleventh 
hour. 

"It's  not  yet  too  late,"  said  I,  "to  have 
White  for  the  war  portfolio  and  leave  Eaton 
in  his  Senate  seat.  I  repeat,  there's  the  country 
to  think  of." 

The  General  was  blandly  immovable.  Said 
he,  "  I  have  told  you  how  it's  a  war  on  me  as 
much  as  a  war  on  Peg.  They  fight  really  against 
me;  they  attack  her  good  name  in  their  criminal 
strategy.  Besides,  Major,  you  do  the  country 
insult."  Here  he  gave  me  a  smile.  "The 
country  is  larger  than  you  would  admit  and  not 
to  be  easily  shaken  or  over-set.  Nor  are  you 
and  I  of  such  import  as  we  think.  The  worst 
that  both  of  us  might  do  of  public  evil  would 
hardly  serve  to  rock  the  boat.  And  though 
the  common  interest  should  dip  gunwale  a  trifle, 
to  this  side  or  to  that,  are  we  to  throw  over- 
board a  girl  on  an  argument  of  trimming  ship  ? 
I  say  to  you  for  the  last  time,  I'm  no  such 
mariner." 

The  latter  sentences  were  vivid  of  spirit, 
and  it  was  clear  the  General  had  given  the 
Eatons  a  deal  of  consideration  since  the  night 
before,  with  the  result  of  stiffening  his  first 
determination. 

"You'll  find  more  folk  than  myself,"  I 
60 


PORT   WINE    DUFF    AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

observed  at  last,  "  to  differ  with  concerning 
this  business.  I  do  not  believe  the  town  is 
like  to  sit  down  quietly  with  the  arrangement." 

"We  will  cross  that  river,"  said  he,  "when 
we  come  to  it.  But  why,  Major,  should  you 
and  I  continue  whirling  flails  over  this  old  straw? 
It  was  between  us  most  thoroughly  threshed 
last  evening.  I  think  you  are  right  about  the 
town,  however,  and  that's  why  I'm  waiting  now 
in  my  apartment.  Mud  or  no  mud,  I  would  else 
be  in  the  saddle  for  a  morning  ride.  I'm  in 
momentary  hope  of  visitation  by  a  delegation 
of  society  Redsticks,  who,  I  understand,  connive 
a  descent  upon  me.  They  propose  at  the  com- 
ing pow-wow  to  demand  my  Eaton  intentions, 
and  to  make  protest  against  them  should  their 
most  worshipful  fancy  disapprove."  The  term 
"  Redsticks,"  which  the  General  employed,  was 
a  kind  of  border  slang  and  the  name  given  to 
the  Creek  hostiles  in  Weatherford's  war.  "You 
must  stand  to  my  back,  Major,  when  the 
enemy  arrives."  This,  with  a  glance  of  humor 
which  showed  the  General  as  not  attaching  vast 
emphasis  to  the  invasion  or  what  might  grow 
from  it. 

"I  will  abide  the  shock  of  your  Redsticks' 
charge,"  I  said,  smiling  with  him,  "unless  they 
bring  a  reserve  of  women  to  the  field.  With 
the  first  dire  swish  of  warlike  crinoline  I  shall 

61 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

abandon  you  to  the  fate  you've  invited.  I  have 
stood  to  odds  ;  but  my  courage  is  not  proof 
against  an  angry  woman." 

The  General  beamed  in  his  droll  fashion 
and,  shifting  our  ground  of  talk,  said  he  had 
letters  to  write  and  needed  my  help.  It  may 
as  well  be  known,  for  soon  or  late  it  is  bound 
to  escape  into  notice,  that  I  wrote  most  of  the 
General's  letters.  He  was  a  perilous  hand  with 
a  pen,  and  no  more  a  speller  than  a  poet. 

But  there  would  be  no  letters  written  that 
day;  for  when  we  were  in  the  very  act  and 
article  of  beginning,  Augustus  came  in  with  a 
card. 

"Ah!  Colonel  Towson,  U.  S.  A.,"  read 
the  General.  "Show  him  up."  This  last  to  Au- 
gustus. "  The  Redsticks  would  seem  to  have 
dwindled  to  one,"  observed  the  General,  turn- 
ing to  me.  "  This  Colonel  Towson  was  to  be 
their  spokesman.  Now  he  comes  alone.  He 
is  a  very  brave  or  a  very  ignorant  man."  And 
the  General  sniffed  dangerously,  and  yet  in 
manner  comic,  as  recognizing  the  elements  of  a 
farce. 

Colonel  Towson,  I  must  needs  say,  was  a 
poor  feature  of  a  man,  with  a  trivial  face  in 
which  the  great  expression  was  a  noble  opinion 
of  himself.  He  was  of  the  cavalry,  as  I  judged 
by  the  facings  on  his  regimentals,  for  our 

62 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

visitor  appeared  in  full  uniform,  and  for  part 
of  his  regalia  dragged  a  clattering  saber  and 
wore  fierce  spurs  to  his  heels.  Plainly  he  was 
one  of  your  egregious  fops  ;  and  his  breast 
was  trussed  outward  and  upward  with  the  full- 
ness of  a  pigeon's  by  dint  of  some  vain  con- 
trivance inside  his  garments.  As  he  brought  his 
heels  together,  and  stood  with  a  deal  of 
splendor  just  inside  the  door,  the  General  ran 
him  over  with  questioning  eye  that  took  in 
everything  from  the  wax  on  his  moustache  to 
the  gilt  on  his  spurs. 

"  What  do  you  want,  sir?"  demanded  the 
General,  as  blunt  as  a  hammer. 

"  I  am  Colonel  Towson,  Mr.  President; 
the  paymaster  of  the  forces." 

Pigeon-breast  spoke  in  high,  affected 
tones,  and  would  clip  his  words  and  slur  his 
"rs"  in  a  mincing  fashion  beyond  imitation. 

"Of  what  forces?" 

The  voice  was  calculated  to  plant  dismay 
in  the  other's  youthful  ears.  I  was  aware  how 
the  General's  ferocity  was  assumed,  and  that 
deep  in  his  throat  he  was  laughing.  I  should 
have  laughed  myself,  but  managed  instead  to 
establish  a  firm  gravity. 

"Of  the  army,  Mr.  President." 

The  high  tone  began  to  squeak  from  agi- 
63 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

tation.     And  no  marvel !    The  General's  frown 
was  enough  to  abash  a  lion. 

"Are  you  come  to  me  on  duty  ?" 
"  No,  sir,  Mr.  President,  I  — " 
"Then  why  do  you  wear  your  side  arms?" 
The  General   could    throw   an   expression 
into  his  face  before  which  a  hostile  council  of 
red  Indians  had   been  known    to  shrink   and 
turn  gray  beneath  the  paints  wherewith  they 
were  tallowed.     The  hapless  Pigeon-breast  was 
shaking  in  the  shadow  of  one  of  the  General's 
most  hateful  looks.     When  the  other  made  no 
response,  the  General  resumed  : 

"Note  this,  sir;  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of 
being  terrorized  by  the  military  forces  of  the 
nation.  Never  again  presume  to  come  into  my 
presence  armed  and  spurred,  unless  required 
by  the  regulations." 

"  I'll  retire,  Mr.  President,  and  change  my 
apparel." 

This  was  feebly  piped,  and  poor  Pigeon- 
breast  came  nigh  to  wrinkling  his  coat  in 
attempts  to  bow  conciliation  and  apology. 

"  State  your  errand,  sir,  now  you  are  here," 
commanded  the  General.  "  I've  no  time  for 
two  visits  from  you." 

Pigeon-breast  took  what  confidence  he 
might  from  the  General's  brusque  permission, 
and  drew  from  his  cuff  a  memoradum  ;  as  it 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND   PIGEON-BREAST 

were,  the  heads  of  a  speech.  Clearing  his 
throat  and  collecting  himself,  he  began  what 
may  have  been  a  most  lucid  aud  eloquent  dis- 
course. Its  effect  was  lost  in  the  delivery, 
however ;  for  what  with  the  high  thin  tones, 
and  what  with  the  orator's  lady-like  affectations, 
neither  the  General  nor  myself  could  make 
more  of  it  than  of  the  laughter  of  a  loon.  For 
his  own  careless  part,  I  don't  think  the  General 
paid  even  slight  attention.  If  Pigeon-breast 
were  uttering  thunder,  then  it  was  summer 
thunder  and  high  and  harmless,  far  above  his 
head ;  he  minded  it  no  more  than  the  scraping 
of  a  fiddle  at  a  tavern  dance.  In  the  midst, 
Pigeon-breast  was  made  to  halt.  The  General 
waved  his  hand  as  demanding  silence. 

"  We  will  shorten  this.  For  whom  do  you 
come  to  me?" 

"  I  was  asked  to  see  you  on  behalf  of  Mrs. 
Calhoun  and  the  ladies  of  Washington." 

The  General  glanced  in  my  direction.  Of 
course  we  well  understood  that  the  mighty 
purpose  of  Pigeon-breast  was  to  protest  against 
Eaton's  selection.  Indeed,  we  had  caught 
enough  of  his  oratory  to  teach  us  that  much. 
Moreover,  Pigeon-breast  had  at  one  stage  read 
aloud  the  article  from  Duff  Green's  paper  as 
the  reason  of  his  coming,  and  received  the 

6s 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

General's  word  that  the  list  therein  set  forth 
was  authorized. 

But  we  had  caught  no  word  of  Mrs. 
Calhoun,  and  her  name,  when  it  did  fall,  came 
as  a  surprise.  The  Vice-President's  wife  was 
the  head  of  capital  fashion — the  stately  queen 
of  the  little  court.  Both  she  and  her  husband, 
however,  had  called  on  the  Eatons  just  follow- 
ing their  wedding  ;  and  now  to  discover  the 
lady  in  the  enemy's  van  owned  a  sinister  as  well 
as  unexpected  side.  It  looked  like  a  change  of 
front,  and  much  sustained  the  General's  surmise 
that  this  was  to  be  a  war  on  him  rather  than 
the  Eatons;  that  its  purpose  was  politics  while 
its  source  was  a  plot. 

"  Did  I  not  tell  you  that  here  was  an 
intrigue?"  asked  the  General.  I  continued 
blowing  my  tobacco  smoke  in  silence  by  the 
fire.  Then,  with  utter  suavity,  the  General 
returned  to  Pigeon-breast.  "  I  must  treat  the 
messenger  with  politeness  because  of  his  fair 
principals.  Let  me  understand  :  You  come  from 
4  Mrs.  Calhoun  and  the  ladies  of  Washington '  ?" 

Pigeon-breast  bowed  as  profoundly  as  he 
might  with  his  armor  on  and  gasped  assent. 

"  And  their  objections  are  to  Mr.  Eaton 
in  the  cabinet — really  to  Mrs.  Eaton  ?" 

Another  bow  and  gasp  from  the  bold 
Pigeon-breast. 

66 


PORT   WINE   DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

"  Sir,  give  my  compliments  to  '  Mrs.  Cal- 
houn  and  the  ladies  of  Washington.'  Say  I 
much  regret  that  I  must  disregard  their  wishes. 
Say,  also,  they  do  grave  wrong,  a  wrong  greater 
than  mere  injustice,  to  one  who  in  all  that 
stands  best  is  their  equal.  Being  ladies,  they 
should  receive  her  as  one  of  themselves  ;  being 
women,  they  should  feel  for  her  as  an  innocent 
maligned ;  being  Christians,  they  should  come 
to  her  succor  as  one  borne  upon  by  troubles. 
These  would  be  graceful  courses,  and  make  for 
the  glory  of  '  Mrs.  Calhoun  and  the  ladies  of 
Washington.'  On  the  point  of  their  protest, 
however,  describe  me  as  saying  that  Mr.  Eaton 
will  be  of  my  cabinet ;  I  shall  tender  him  the 
portfolio  of  war  and  he  has  signified  his  readi- 
ness to  accept.  I  do  not  know  what  this  may 
imply  socially ;  I  do  not  decide  that,  but  leave 
it  to  the  better  and  more  experienced  tastes  of 
'  Mrs.  Calhoun  and  the  ladies  of  Washington.' 
Also,  you  are  to  do  me  this  favor,  sir." 

Pigeon-breast,  who  was  flattered  by  the 
General's  long  harangue,  and  inclined  to  con- 
gratulate himself  over  a  polite  finale  to  what 
as  an  interview  at  one  moment  was  stricken  of 
a  storm,  here  aroused  himself  smartly. 

"  Believe  me,  Mr.  President,  any  favor  in 
my  power." 

Pigeon-breast  touched  his  brow  with  pro- 

<7 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

digious  military  eclat,  and  then  slapped  his  leg 
with  his  hand  like  cracking  off  a  pistol. 

"  Why,  then,  the  favor  is  simple.  Tell  every 
enemy  of  mine,  and  especially  every  friend  of 
Henry  Clay,  my  decision  touching  Mr.  Eaton. 
I  want  the  news  to  travel  fast  and  far.  My 
friends  will  sustain  Mr.  Eaton;  and  as  for  my 
foes,  it  shall  go  hard  but  I  discover  ways  to 
deal  with  them.  You  may  depart,  sir." 

Pigeon-breast  saluted  with  flattered  chin  in 
air,  and  went  his  way,  and  presently  we  heard 
his  saber  on  its  jingling  journey  down  the  stair. 

"  I  do  not  understand  that  word  about  the 
Calhouns,"  observed  the  General,  when  we 
were  alone.  "  The  Calhouns  have  already 
visited  the  Eatons  and  professed  friendship. 
As  for  myself,  I've  supposed  Calhoun  my  sup- 
porter. And  why  should  he  be  otherwise  ?" 
The  General  shook  his  head  as  one  puzzled. 
"  We  must,  I  fear,  count  as  against  us  more 
than  Henry  Clay  and  his  rogues  of  Bargain 
and  Corruption.  Well,  so  be  it ;  a  fight  is  like 
a  frolic  in  so  far  that  *  the  more,  the  merrier,' 
as  a  proverb,  applies  with  equal  force  to  both." 

Now  that  Pigeon-breast  was  gone,  and  we 
being  alone,  I  remonstrated  with  the  General 
for  that  he  had  entertained  our  caller  and  sub- 
mitted to  his  anti-Eaton  speech.  I  said  it 
disparaged  his  dignity;  that  he  had  already 

68 


PORT   WINE    DUFF   AND    PIGEON-BREAST 

listened  to  Duff  Green,  which  was  bad  enough, 
but  now  he  must  stand  with  half-patient  ear 
while  yon  clanking  popinjay  reeled  off  his  high- 
pitched  opposition  and  that  of  those  befeathered 
dames  whom  he  professed  to  represent.  It  was 
a  poor  beginning  for  a  president. 

"Why,  sir,"  retorted  the  General,  "  you, 
yourself,  are  wont  to  hector  me  at  will ;  I  may 
not  buy  a  coat  without  you  finding  fault. 
Major,  I  fear  me  you  are  the  proud  one.  To 
be  sure,  I  stoop  when  I  listen  to  such  as  Duff 
and  our  martial  visitor  just  here.  But  you 
must  know  what  Franklin  said  of  stooping  : 
'The  world  is  like  a  tunnel,  dark  and  low  of 
roof.  He  who  stoops  a  little  as  he  passes 
through  will  save  himself  many  a  thump.' ' 

"  Oh,  if  it  were  to  be,"  said  I,  "  an  argu- 
ment of  saw  and  proverb  and  slips  of  dried 
wisdom,  I  might  quote  you  not  a  few  and  red- 
den your  ears.  What  I  say  is,  you  sacrifice 
dignity;  you  know  it  full  well  at  that." 

The  General  laughed.  "  But  I  had  my 
reasons,  Major.  I  sent  him  whom  you  term 
4  Pigeon-breast '  forth  to  be  a  poultice  to  this 
Eaton  inflammation.  I  want  to  draw  it  to  a 
head.  Duff  Green  wouldn't  do  ;  he'd  keep  our 
talk  to  himself,  since  my  harshness  hurt  his 
self-love,  and  he's  too  vain  to  tell  a  tale  against 
himself.  And  again,  he  would  be  made  silent 

69 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

with  thoughts  of  my  possible  resentment. 
With  Pigeon-breast  the  cards  fall  differently. 
Did  you  not  remark  how  well  I  flattered  ?  At 
the  outset  he  was  afraid  of  me.  In  the  end  I 
packed  his  timidity  in  cotton-batting  and  sang 
it  to  sleep ;  I  rocked  his  cradle  and  warmed  his 
milk  for  him.  I  called  up  his  pride  and  made 
him  my  messenger.  He  will  tell  the  Eaton 
story  to  all,  and  give  me  as  his  authority ;  that 
is  what  I  seek.  It  is  a  business  that  will  be  the 
sooner  over  by  setting  folk's  mouths  to  the 
quarrel  at  once.  And  we  should  make  it  short 
for  Peg's  sake.  Poor  Peg ;  it's  her  tavern 
origin  that  kindles  patrician  wrath,  and  it  is 
their  aristocratic  method  to  blow  calumny  upon 
her.  Slander,  Major," — here  the  General 
donned  his  manner  of  philosopher — "slander, 
Major,  is  as  much  the  resource  of  your  true 
aristocrat  as  poison  of  your  Turk." 


CHAPTER  III 

PEG'S   MEETING   WITH   THE    MAJOR 

Before,  in  this  relation,  I  go  to  that  meet- 
ing with  Peg  whereof  I  made  account  in  the 
commencement  of  my  story,  it  would  be 
proper,  I  think,  to  notice  a  singular  person- 
ality ;  one  who,  in  intermittent  fashion,  will 
run  in  and  out  of  my  history  like  a  needle 
through  cloth.  His  sewing,  however,  will  be 
of  the  friendliest,  for  he  was  as  loyal  to  the 
General  as  any  soul  who  breathed. 

Mordecai  Noah,  was  the  man's  name.  The 
General  possessed  a  good  previous  acquaint- 
ance with  him,  although,  as  in  the  gentle  in- 
stance of  Peg,  I  was  now  to  meet  him  for  the 
earliest  time. 

Noah  was  a  writer  of  plays,  and  an  editor; 
moreover,  he  was  a  gentleman  of  substance 
and  celebration  in  New  York  City,  where  his 
paper  did  stout  service  for  the  General  the  hot 
autumn  before.  Noah  also  had  been  America's 
envoy  to  the  Barbary  States  during  the  years 
of  Madison.  A  Hebrew  of  purest  strain, 
Noah  was  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah  and  the 
House  of  David,  and  the  wiseacres  of  his  race 

71 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

told  his  lineage,  and  that  he  was  descended  of 
David  in  a  right  line,  and  would  be  a  present 
King  of  the  Jews  were  it  not  that  the  latter 
owned  neither  country  nor  throne.  However 
this  may  have  been — and  indeed  a  true  ac- 
curacy for  such  ancestral  cliff-climbing  seems 
incredible,  when  any  little  slip  would  spoil  the 
whole — Noah  was  of  culture  and  quiet  pene- 
tration ;  withal  cunning  and  fertile  to  a  degree. 
Also,  I  found  his  courage  to  be  the  steadiest ; 
he  would  fight  with  slight  reason,  and  had  in  a 
duel  some  twenty  years  before,  with  the  first 
fire,  killed  one  Cantor,  a  flamboyant  person — 
the  world  might  well  spare  him — on  the 
Charleston  racetrack,  respectably  at  ten  paces. 
I  incline  to  grant  space  favorable  to  Noah ;  for 
he  played  his  part  with  an  integrity  as  fine  as 
his  intelligence,  while  his  own  modesty,  coupled 
with  that  vulgar  dislike  of  Jews  by  ones  who 
otherwise  might  have  named  him  in  the  annals 
of  that  day,  has  operated  to  obscure  his  name. 

The  General  told  me  of  Noah  somewhat 
at  length  on  this  morning,  and  just  following 
the  marching  away  of  Pigeon-breast.  He  said 
he  had  sent  for  him,  and  that  any  moment 
might  bring  his  footfall  to  the  door. 

As  he  dwelt  on  Noah  and  his  character- 
istics, I  was  struck  by  a  word.  It  is  worth 
record  as  a  sidelight  on  his  own  nature. 

72 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

The  General  showed  gusto  and  a  lip- 
smacking  interest  in  Noah's  duel  with  the 
man  Cantor,  and  ran  out  every  detail  as  one 
runs  out  a  trail.  I  could  not  forbear  com- 
ment. 

"How  is  it,"  said  I,  "you  so  dote  on 
strife?" 

"  I  don't  dote  on  strife.  But  when  it 
comes  to  that,  Major,  war  is  as  natural  as 
peace." 

"  If  it  were  so,"  I  returned,  "  still  your 
admiration  is  entirely  for  war.  You  do  not 
love  peace." 

"  I  don't  love  war  so  much  as  warriors," 
he  contended.  "I  understand  your  war  man; 
and  I  do  not  fear  him.  Besides,  your  honest 
soul  of  battles  may  be  made  a  best  friend.  I 
feel  the  rankle  of  a  Benton  bullet  in  my  shoul- 
der as  we  talk  together ;  and  yet  to-day  a  Ben- 
ton  faces  my  detractors  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate.  I  say  again,  I  love  the  natural  war- 
rior ;  I  comprehend  him  and  he  gives  me  no 
feeling  of  fear." 

"  Do  you  tell  me  you  can  be  a  prey  to 
fear?"  I  put  the  query  as  an  element  of  dis- 
pute. His  reply  was  the  word  that  surprised 
me. 

"Fear?"  and  the  General  repeated  the 
word  with  a  sight  of  earnestness.  "  Sir,  I 

73 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

fear  folk  who  won't  fight ;  I  fear  preachers, 
Quakers.  They  are  a  most  dangerous  gentry 
to  run  crosswise  with." 

When  Noah  arrived,  I  was  still  sitting 
with  the  General.  Noah  was  a  sharp,  nimble 
man  of  middle  size  and  years,  and  physically  as 
deft  and  sure  of  movement  as  a  mountain  goat. 
He  took  hold  of  my  hand  on  being  presented 
by  the  General,  and  I  observed  how  he  had  an 
iron  steadiness  of  grip.  I  liked  that;  I  am, 
myself,  of  prodigious  thews  and  as  strong  of 
arm  as  any  canebrake  bear,  and  when  folk 
shake  hands  with  me,  a  blush  of  emphasis  is 
to  my  humor.  I  like  to  know  that  I've  hold 
on  somebody  and  that  somebody  has  hold  on 
me.  As  I  looked  in  Noah's  face,  I  was  struck 
with  the  contradiction  of  his  black  eyes,  and 
hair  red  as  the  fur  of  a  fox.  On  the  whole,  I 
felt  pleased  to  know  that  Noah  was  the  Gen- 
eral's true  friend;  no  one  would  have  cared 
for  his  enmity. 

"  I  feel  as  though  you  were  an  old  ac- 
quaintance," said  Noah,  and  his  face  lighted  as 
I've  observed  a  sudden  splash  of  sunshine  to 
light  a  deep  wood.  "The  General  has  named 
you  so  often  in  his  letters,  and  spoken  of  you 
so  much  in  what  interviews  I've  enjoyed  with 
him,  that  you  are  to  me  no  stranger." 

74 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

"And  I've  heard  frequently  and  much  of 
you,"  I  replied. 

We  from  that  moment  were  as  thoroughly 
near  to  one  another  as  though  neighbors  for  a 
decade.  It  was  a  strange  concession  of  my 
nature,  for  men  come  slowly  upon  terms  of  con- 
fidence with  me,  and  my  suspicions  are  known 
for  their  restlessness. 

"  This  is  my  thought,  Noah,"  said  the  Gen- 
eral ;  "  this  is  why  I  summoned  you.  Blessed 
is  he  to  whom  one  is  not  driven  with  explana- 
tions, and  who  intuitively  comprehends.  You 
are  that  man,  Noah."  The  General's  vivid 
manner  was  a  delight  to  me.  "There's  the 
Eaton  affair — you  read  my  scheme  of  a  cabinet 
in  the  paper.  There's  to  be  a  war  upon  the 
Eatons — upon  me.  Already  I  hear  a  dull  rum- 
ble as  the  opposition  takes  its  artillery  into 
position.  I  would  know  what  this  means.  Is  it 
a  frill-and-ruffle  wrath  alone  and  confined  to  our 
ladies?  Or  does  it  go  deeper  and  plant  its 
tap-root  in  a  plot  ?  You  know  what  I  should 
say.  Four  years  pass  as  swiftly  as  four  clouds; 
and  Henry  Clay  would  still  hanker  for  a  presi- 
dency. These  Bargain  and  Corruption  wolves 
will  hunt  my  administration  for  every  foot  of 
the  way,  and  strive  to  drag  it  down.  You 
gather  my  notion,  Noah.  Discover  all  you 
can;  back-track  this  Eaton  trouble — it's  but 

75 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

just  started  and  the  trail  is  short — and  bring 
me  sure  word ,  not  only  of  those  who  foment 
it,  but  of  the  position  held  towards  it  by  both 
Clay  and  Calhoun.  Of  the  hatred  of  the  former 
I'm  certain,  and  that  he'll  strike  at  me  with 
foulest  blow.  Calhoun,  elected  to  the  vice- 
presidency  by  my  side,  I  would  have  leaned  on 
confidently;  but  a  word  has  been  said — the 
Major  heard  it — that  nurtures  doubt.  Let  me 
learn  all  there  is  of  this  tangle  with  what  dis- 
patch you  may.  My  own  belief  goes  to  it  that, 
when  all  is  said,  search  will  discover  Clay  to  be 
the  sole,  lone  bug  under  the  chip,  and  Cal- 
houn— and  put  it  the  worst  way — but  an  indif- 
ferent looker-on." 

Noah  paid  wordless  attention  until  the 
General  was  through.  Then  he  spoke.  "  Gen- 
eral," said  Noah,  "  I  had  already  heard  much 
when  you  sent  for  me.  Your  portfolio  pur- 
poses have  not  been  a  secret  well  kept.  Also, 
it  has  been  abroad  as  gossip  for  almost  a  week, 
this  ill  talk  of  the  Eatons ;  this  morning's  pub- 
lication simply  served  to  give  it  volume.  Thus 
far,  and  personally,  Henry  Clay  has  had  naught 
to  do  with  it ;  his  friends,  however,  have  been 
prompt  to  lift  up  the  cry.  You  are  right,  too, 
when  you  regard  the  rage  of  these  wolves  as 
threatening  you.  They  would,  as  you  declare, 
tear  down  your  administration.  They  will 

76 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

leave  nothing  untried.  They  will  hang  on 
your  flanks  through  the  defiles  and  in  the 
thickets  of  society;  and  it  is  thus  they  will 
seek  to  harass  you  by  means  of  the  Eatons. 
They  reckon  no  slight  help  to  their  plans, 
General,  through  your  high  temper;  I  say  this 
for  no  end  of  irritation,  but  to  put  you  on 
guard  with  yourself." 

Noah  would  have  gone  forth  at  once,  but 
the  General  held  him  in  speech  about  Van 
Buren,  who  as  present  Governor  of  New 
York  must  resign  his  Albany  position  to 
assume  place  as  the  General's  premier. 

Noah,  who  lived  Van  Buren's  right  hand 
of  power  in  his  own  region,  was  full  to  the 
brim  with  him,  and  I,  who  had  yet  to  be  intro- 
duced to  the  little  Knickerbocker,  sat  absorbed 
of  his  description.  The  General  had  met  Van 
Buren  a  dozen  times  or  more  ;  but  in  any  sense 
of  intimacy  he  was  as  ignorant  of  his  future 
secretary  as  was  I  myself.  We  therefore  gave 
fullest  heed  to  Noah,  who  talked  well,  being 
one  able  to  take  you  a  man  to  pieces  as  though 
he  were  a  clock,  and  show  in  detail  his  wheels 
and  particular  springs,  and  point  you  to  the 
pendulum  of  motive  for  every  hour  he  struck. 

We  were  in  mid-swing  of  talk  when  I  was 
called.  It  was  none  other  than  Jim,  to  bring 
me  that  information — threatening,  he  deemed 

77 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

it — of  the  beautiful  Peg  who  waited  my  coming 
below. 

As  I  was  going,  the  door  standing  open, 
one  in  coat  of  clerical  finish  presented  himself 
without  announcement,  and  rapped  modestly 
on  the  door  frame.  I  had  had  experience  of 
his  flock  aud  knew  him  by  his  feathers.  Plainly, 
he  was  a  solicitor  of  subscriptions  for  some 
amiable  charity.  The  book  in  his  hand  spoke 
loudly  for  my  surmise. 

My  doubt,  had  one  been  entertained, 
would  have  found  dissipation  by  the  words  of 
the  General,  as,  harsh  and  strident,  they  over- 
took me  on  my  way. 

"  No,  sir,"  I  heard  him  say ;  "no,  sir  1  Not 
one  splinter  I — not  one  two-bit  piece  !  I  shall 
begin  as  I  mean  to  end.  You  people  are  not 
to  send  me  out  of  the  White  House,  a  pauper 
and  a  beggar,  as  you  sent  poor  Jim  Monroe." 

Doughtily  resolved,  oh  General !  hard 
without  and  soft  within !  Doughtily  resolved 
and  weakly  executed,  when  eight  years  later 
you  are  made  to  borrow  ten  thousand  dollars 
wherewith  to  pay  your  White  House  debts 
before  ever  you  wend  homeward  to  your  Her- 
mitage ! 

After  forty  and  when  youth's  suppleness 
has  fled,  one's  fancy  is  as  prone  to  lapse  into  a 
stiff  inertness  as  one's  joints.  It  came  then  to 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

pass,  as  I  journeyed  parlorward  along  the  old- 
fashioned  corridors  and  stairways  of  the  Indian 
Queen,  that  I  in  nowise  was  visited  by  any  glint 
of  the  possible  beauty  of  Peg,  nor  yet  of  her 
honest  injuries  ;  but  rather,  in  half  peevish 
fashion,  I  considered  her  a  proposed  incum- 
brance  to  the  General's  administration,  in  which 
I  may  be  pardoned  for  saying — I,  who  had 
been  busy  with  trowel  and  plumb-line  about 
the  corner  stone  and  subsills  of  his  whole  career 
— I  was  smitten  of  an  interest.  Truly,  I 
had  been  Eaton's  friend ;  and  had  used  him 
well,  too.  Also,  I  was  glad  to  have  him  take  Peg 
to  wife,  since  such  was  his  fancy.  But  why 
should  she  and  he  rise  subsequently  up  to  vex 
folk  who  were  like  to  own  troubles  more  prop- 
erly their  own?  That  was  the  question  I  held 
acridly  under  my  tongue  as  I  went  onward  to 
my  meeting  with  Peg,  and  I  fear  some  blush  of 
it  showed  in  my  face. 

Over  six  feet  and  broad  as  a  door,  I 
doubtless  towered  forbiddingly  upon  her  imag- 
inings when  I  came  up  to  Peg;  these  and  the 
cloud  on  my  forehead — for  I  am  sure  one  dark- 
ened it — showed  her  to  be  both  brave  and 
innocent  when,  without  hesitation  or  holding 
back,  she  put  forth  her  hands  to  me.  I've  told 
somewhere  how  she  gave  me  her  hand ;  that  was 
wrong ;  she  gave  me  both,  and  gave  them  with 

79 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

a  full  sweep  of  frankness,  that  showed  confi- 
dent at  once  and  sad,  as  though  with  the 
motion  of  it  she  offered  herself  for  my  protec- 
tion. She  spoke  no  word ;  her  little  hands  lay 
in  my  great  ones,  and  I  felt  within  them  the 
beat  of  a  sharp,  small  pulse  as  of  one  under 
strain  and  stress.  Once,  long  before,  I  had 
toiled  upward  with  caitiff  secrecy  and  captured 
a  sleeping  mother-pigeon  on  her  nest.  The 
quick  flutter  of  the  bird's  heart  beneath  my 
fingers  was  as  this  poor  throbbing  in  Peg's 
hands.  I  remember,  also,  I  was  melted  into 
the  same  sudden  compassion  for  the  pigeon  that 
seized  on  me  for  Peg. 

"  I  came  to  you  because  you  are  the  Gen- 
eral's old  friend,"  she  said.  Her  sweet,  large  eyes 
were  swimming,  and  her  voice  began  to  break. 
Then  she  put  out  an  effort  and  brought  herself 
to  bay.  "I've  nothing  to  ask;  not  much  to 
say,  neither.  I  know  what  the  General  would 
do  ;  my  husband  has  told  me.  I  know,  too, 
what  it  will  mean  of  slander  and  insult  and 
suffering.  And  yet — I've  prayed  upon  it ; 
prayed  and  again  prayed  ! — I  must  go  forward. 
I  can  not,  nay,  I  dare  not  become  a  bar  across 
the  path  of  my  husband;  I  dare  not  poison 
his  success." 

All  this  time  I  had  been  holding  to  her 
hands,  for  I  felt  her  great  beauty  and  it  made 

So 


PEG'S    MEETING   WITH    THE    MAJOR 

me  forget  the  name  of  time.  Besides,  this  was 
no  common  meeting,  but  rather  the  making  of 
a  league  and  covenant  between  folk  who  were 
to  be  allies  throughout  a  bitter  strife.  I  think 
she  noticed  my  awkward  and  scarce  polite  reten- 
tion of  her  fingers,  for  she  withdrew  them, 
while  a  little  flush  of  color  painted  itself  in  her 
face.  Still,  she  did  not  do  this  unkindly ;  and, 
I  may  say,  there  was  nothing  of  sentiment  in 
my  breast  which  cried  for  rebuke  or  tendered 
her  aught  but  honor. 

"  Pardon  a  freedom  in  one  twice  your 
years,  but  you  are  wondrous  beautiful." 
These  were  my  first  words  to  Peg.  "  Mr. 
Eaton  has  come  by  mighty  fortune." 

"My beauty,  as  you  call  it,"  said  she, with 
just  the  shadow  of  a  smile  that  told  more  of 
pain  than  gladness,  "  has  been  no  good  ground 
to  me  and  borne  me  nettles  for  a  crop.  I  had 
been  happier  for  a  wholesome  plainness." 

Then  we  settled  to  a  better  conversation ; 
and  the  while  her  sweetness  was  growing  on  me 
like  a  vine  and  I  becoming  more  and  more 
soundly  her  partisan  with  every  moment. 

"  My  husband  is  much  honored,"  said  she 
at  one  point,  "and deems  himself  advanced  by 
what  the  General  would  offer.  Also,  he  sees  noth- 
ing of  the  darkness  into  which  I  stare ;  he  sees 
only  the  high  station  and  the  power  of  it,  and 

Si 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

the  way  shines  to  his  feet.  But  I  know  what 
society  will  do ;  I  have  not  been  child  and  girl 
and  woman  in  Washington  without  experience 
of  it.  Folk  will  turn  from  me  and  ignore 
me  and  seek  to  blot  me  out.  If  it  were 
none  save  myself  to  be  considered,  I  would 
abandon  the  field ;  I  would  hunt  seclusion,  cul- 
tivate obscurity  as  if  it  were  a  rose.  But  am  I 
to  become  a  drag  on  the  man  who  loves  me  and 
gives  me  his  name?  Am  I  to  be  fetters  for  his 
feet — a  stumbling-block  before  him  ?" 

"  There  is  no  need  of  this  apprehension," 
said  I ;  "  you  should  have  a  higher  spirit,  since 
you  are  innocent." 

"  Innocent,  yes  !"  she  cried,  and  her  deep 
eyes  glowed  ;  "  innocent,  yes  !  As  heaven  hears 
me,  innocent!"  Her  manner  dismayed  me  with 
what  it  unveiled  of  suffering.  Then  in  a  lower 
tone,  and  with  a  kindle  of  that  cynicism 
to  come  upon  folk  who,  working  no  evil  and 
doing  no  wrong,  are  yet  made  to  find  them- 
selves fronted  of  adverse  tides  and  blown 
against  by  winds  of  cruelty,  "  Innocent,  yes ; 
but  what  relief  comes  then?  I  am  young;  many 
are  still  children  with  my  years.  And,  thanks 
to  a  tavern  bringing  up," — here  was  hardness 
now — "  I  have  so  seen  into  the  world's  heart  as 
to  know  that  it  is  better  to  be  a  rogue  called 
honest,  than  honest  and  called  a  rogue.  That 

82 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

is  true  among  men ;  I  tell  you  it  is  doubly  true 
among  women." 

To  be  open  about  it,  I  was  shocked ;  not 
that  what  Peg  said  was  either  foolish  or  untrue. 
But  to  be  capable  of  such  talk,  and  she  with 
that  loving,  patient  mouth,  showed  how  woeful 
must  have  been  the  lesson.  But  it  gave  me 
none  the  less  a  deal  of  sureness  for  the  level 
character  of  her  intellect,  and  I  saw  she  carried 
within  her  head  the  rudiments  of  sense. 

"  What  is  it  you  would  ask  of  me  ?"  said 
I,  at  last.  "  I  can  only  promise  beforehand 
anything  in  my  power." 

"  I  would  ask  nothing,"  she  replied,  "  save 
the  assurance  that  you  will  be  my  husband's 
friend  and  mine.  I  see  grief  on  its  way  as  one 
sees  a  storm  creep  up  the  sky.  Oh  !"  she  sud- 
denly cried  with  a  sparkle  of  tears,  "  my  hus- 
band I  He  must  not  be  made  ashamed  for 
me!  Rather  than  that,  I  would  die!" 

Peg  bowed  her  flower-like  head  and  wept, 
I,  sitting  just  across,  doing  nothing,  saying 
nothing ;  which  conduct  was  wise  on  my  part, 
albeit  I  hadn't  the  wit  to  see  it  at  the  time,  and 
was  simply  daunted  to  silence  by  a  sorrow  I 
knew  not  how  to  check.  It  was  a  tempest, 
truly,  and  swayed  and  bent  her  like  a  willow  in 
a  wind.  At  last  she  overtook  herself;  she 

83 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

smiled  with  all  the  brightness  of  nature,  or  the 
sun  after  a  flurry  of  rain. 

"It  will  do  me  good,"  she  said;  "and 
when  the  time  comes  I  will  be  braver  than  you 
now  think." 

When  Peg  smiled  she  gave  me  a  flash  of 
white  behind  the  full  red  of  her  lips.  Then  I 
noticed  a  peculiar  matter.  She  wanted  the  two 
teeth  that,  one  on  each  side  of  the  middle 
teeth,  should  grow  between  the  latter  and  the 
eye  teeth.  When  I  say  she  wanted  these,  you 
are  not  to  understand  she  once  owned  them 
and  that  they  were  lost.  These  teeth  had 
never  been ;  where  six  should  have  grown  there 
were  but  four;  and  these,  set  evenly  and  with 
dainty  spaces  between,  took  up  the  room,  each 
claiming  its  just  share.  The  teeth  were  as 
white  as  rice,  short  and  broad  and  strong,  and 
the  eye  teeth  sharply  pointed  like  those  of  a 
leopard.  There  gleamed,  too,  a  shimmer  of 
ferocity  about  these  teeth  which  called  for  all 
Peg's  tenderness  of  mouth,  aye !  even  that 
sadness  which  lurked  in  plaintive  shadows 
about  the  corners,  to  correct.  And  yet  what 
struck  one  as  a  blemish  went  on  to  be  a  source 
of  fascination  and  grew  into  the  little  lady's 
chiefest  charm — these  separated  sharp  white 
leopard  teeth  of  Peg's. 

When  I  came  into  the  room  I  was  thinking 
84 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

on  the  hardships  to  the  General's  administra- 
tion ;  now  I  regarded  nothing  save  the  perils 
of  Peg  herself.  With  that  on  my  soul  I  started, 
man-fashion,  to  talk  courageously. 

"After  all,  what  is  there  to  cower  from?" 
said  I.  "  You  know  society,  you  say ;  doubt- 
less that  is  true.  I  confess  I  do  not,  since  this 
is  almost  my  first  visit  to  the  town.  But  I 
know  men,  and  of  what  else  is  society  com- 
pounded? Their  heaviest  frown,  if  one  but 
think  coolly  and  be  sure  of  one's  self,  should 
not  weigh  down  a  feather." 

u  Why,  yes,"  she  cried,  "  you  know  men. 
But  do  you  know  women  ?  Men  are  as  so 
many  camp  followers  of  society  ;  it  is  the  women 
who  make  the  fighting  line.  And  oh  1  their 
shafts  are  tipped  with  venom  1" 

"  It  cannot  be  so  bad,"  I  insisted.  "  So- 
called  society,  which  must  take  on  somewhat 
the  character  of  come-and-go  with  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  administrations,  begins  with  the  White 
House,  does  it  not?" 

"We  will  do  our  best,"  smiled  Peg,  with- 
out replying  to  my  question. 

Probably  she  comprehended  the  hopeless 
sort  of  my  ignorance  and  the  uselessness  of 
efforts  to  set  forth  to  me  the  "  Cabinet  Circle," 
the  "  Senate  Circle,"  the  "  Supreme  Court 
Circle,"  and  those  dozen  other  mysterious 

85 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

rings  within  rings,  wheels  within  wheels,  which 
the  complicated  perfection  of  capital  social  life 
offers  for  the  confusion  of  folk. 

"  Unquestionably,  the  White  House,"  Peg 
went  on,  "  is  the  citadel,  the  great  tower,  and 
we  can  always  retreat  to  that.  We  will  do  well 
enough ;  but  oh  1" — here  Peg  laid  her  hand 
like  a  rose  leaf  on  my  arm — "  you  do  not  un- 
derstand, a  man  can  not  understand,  what  we 
shall  go  through." 

"  Let  us  have  stout  hearts  for  all  that,"  said 
I.  "It  behooveth  us  to  be  bold,  since  no  victory, 
even  over  weakness,  was  ever  constructed  of 
timidity.  Besides,  the  foe  may  offer  us  its  de- 
feat by  its  own  errors.  I  recall,  how  once  upon 
a  time,  certain  Creeks  whom  the  General  was  to 
attack  entrenched  themselves,  and  all  about 
felled  trees  and  sharpened  the  branches  into 
points,  the  whole  as  defensive  as  any  bristle  of 
bayonets.  You,  as  thought  these  red  engineers, 
would  have  deemed  the  place  impregnable,  for 
no  one  might  force  his  way  through  this  chevaux 
de-frise.  But  the  General's  military  eye  unlocked 
the  situation.  The  sun-dried  leaves  and  twigs 
were  lying  where  they  fell.  An  arrow,  with 
blazing  tow  tied  to  its  shaft  and  shot  from  a 
safe  two  hundred  yards  away,  solved  the  prob- 
lem. In  a  moment  that  precious  defence  was 
on  fire ;  and  the  enemy,  driven  forth  by  the  heat 

86 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

and  flame  and  smoke  of  it,  were  met  in  the 
open  and  destroyed  to  a  man.  We  may  yet 
smoke  these  society  savages  into  a  surrender 
by  setting  an  honest  torch  to  their  surround- 
ings. One  thing  we  can  promise  ourselves." 
I  remarked  this  in  conclusion.  "  Whatever  else 
may  fail,  at  the  worst,  you  shall  not  go  wanting 
a  revenge." 

"  And  that  thought  is  sweet,  too,"  said  she 
in  return. 

Peg's  leopard  teeth  were  not  without  sig- 
nificance ;  that  much  I  saw.  After  all,  her 
speech  was  to  have  been  expected ;  for  who 
will  go  further  afield  for  revenge  than  your  flesh 
and  blood  true  woman,  still  of  earth's  fires  and 
not  ready  for  the  skies  ? 

Peg  told  me  a  portion  of  her  story;  partly 
because  it  was  natural  she  should  think  that  I, 
who  had  been  a  stranger  to  her,  might  justly  want 
such  knowledge  ;  but  mostly,  I  believe,  for  that 
she  had  an  instinct  to  defend  herself  against 
what  I  might  have  preconceived  to  her  disaster. 
Dear  child,  she  had  small  cause  to  fret  herself 
on  that  score  !  I  remember  she  gave  herself  no 
little  blame  as  the  self-willed  gardener  of  those 
thorny  sorrows  among  which  she  had  walked 
and  was  still  sorrowfully  to  find  her  path.  She 
would  run  on  like  this,  as  I  recall : 

"  The  first  fault  belonged  with  this  tavern 
87 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

of  an  Indian  Queen.  I  could  have  been  no 
older  than  eight  when  I  knew  how  folk  who 
came  here,  Congressmen  and  officers  of  state 
and  their  ladies,  looked  upon  us  who  kept  the 
place  as  but  servants  over  servants,  and  took 
care  not  to  meet  us  on  an  equal  footing  with 
themselves.  My  father  and  mother  were  dis- 
rated as  mere  tavern-keepers  who  sold  their 
entertainment  to  any  and  to  all;  and  I,  so  soon 
as  I  came  to  discretion  and  an  ability  to  appre- 
hend, found  myself  included  in  the  ban  thus 
set  upon  my  people.  I've  seen  nurses  skurry  to 
carry  their  charges  off  from  childish  games 
with  me  and  the  contamination  of  my  baby 
contact.  Later,  in  girlhood,  I've  overheard 
mothers  while  they  warned  their  daughters  to 
avoid  me,  and  experienced  the  tilt-nosed  airs  of 
those  same  daughters  who  with  superior  arts  of 
insolence  stung  me  like  wasps.  More  often 
than  once,  I've  crept  away  to  tears  of  shame 
because  I  was  the  daughter  of  a  tavern. 

"  But  in  the  end  it  hardened  me.  I  had  a 
perverse,  retaliatory  temper.  I  grew  up  beau- 
tiful, so  folk  told  me ;  moreover,  I  knew  it  but 
too  well  by  the  merest  glance  in  a  glass.  With 
my  beauty," — Peg  spoke  of  it  in  mixed  sim- 
plicity and  sadness  as  though  she  recounted 
deformity — "I  was  wont  to  fashion  my  revenge. 
My  father — not  a  poor  man,  for  while  taverns 

88 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

may  be  vulgar  they  may  be  profitable — was  ever 
ready  to  spend  money  on  me ;  and  I  had  only 
to  hint  at  a  comb  or  a  ribbon  or  a  ring,  to  find 
the  gewgaw  an  hour  after  on  my  table.  Good, 
poor  man  !  my  father,  calm  and  careless  enough 
under  his  condition  so  far  as  it  rested  on  him- 
self, felt  for  my  humiliations,  which  now  and 
again  he  could  not  fail  to  see,  and  sought  with 
trinketry  and  luxury  of  dress  to  repair  the 
injury.  Neither  he  nor  my  mother  spoke  of 
what  they  both  must  have  felt,  that  is  our  no- 
social  condition,  if  one  may  so  describe  it;  and 
for  myself,  I  was  too  proud,  and  too  tenderly 
in  love  with  them  for  their  thousand  kindnesses, 
to  bring  it  upon  their  notice. 

"As  I've  said,  I  made  my  beauty  the 
method  of  my  revenge.  I  owned  taste  as  well 
as  looks,  and  my  wits  were  as  deep  and  as  quick 
and  as  bright  as  my  eyes.  I've  set  many  a 
wrinkle  on  many  a  fair  brow  by  defeating  it  to 
second  place  in  that  woman's  rivalry  of  looks. 

"  For  these  wars,  where  loveliness  tilts 
against  loveliness,  my  allies  were  the  men. 
Compliment  for  me  was  never  silent  on  their 
lips.  I  was  the  town's  toast  as  I  grew  up. 
This  put  the  women  to  an  opposite  course. 
As  the  men  spoke  of  my  beauty,  the  women 
shrugged  their  pure  shoulders  and  told  of  my 
boldness ;  and  I  must  confess  that  in  a  native 

89 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

vivacity,  together  with  that  rebellion  of  the 
spirit  born  of  their  attitude  towards  me,  I 
gave  them  endless  evidence  to  go  upon.  I 
have  lived  my  life  without  an  immorality  or  the 
shadow  of  one ;  I  have  done  no  wrong  where- 
with to  shame  myself;  but,  reckless,  careless, 
and  with  the  frank  ignorance  of  innocence — 
and  then,  to  be  sure,  because  it  made  those 
others  angry — I  was  greedy  of  men's  praise, 
withal  too  free  of  speech  and  eye,  and  thereby 
offered  tongues  eager  to  assail  me  the  argu- 
ment required  as  material  for  their  ill  work. 
They,  the  women,  wove  for  me  as  bad  a  story 
as  they  might,  and  then  wrapped  it  about  me 
for  a  reputation.  How  I  loathed  and  hated 
them !  those  who,  worsted  of  my  beauty, 
would  tear  me  with  calumny  by  way  of  re- 
prisal I 

u  Now  I  must  tell  you,  it  was  I  who  wearied 
first  of  that  game  where  it  was  beauty  on  the 
one  side  against  icy  stare,  arched  brow,  and 
covert  innuendo  on  the  other.  No ;  my  tongue 
would  not  have  spared  them — it  was  never  a 
patient  member,  that  tongue! — but  for  such 
artillery,  as  you  would  call  it,  my  persecutors 
were  out  of  reach.  There  is  a  gravity  of 
words ;  they  descend  and  never  climb ;  they 
must,  like  a  stone,  come  tumbling  from  above 
to  do  an  injury.  Wherefore  these  folk  high 

90 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

up  were  safe  from  me — safe  from  everything 
except  my  beauty ;  and  since  I  maintained  my- 
self without  a  stain  upon  my  virtue,  even 
my  beauty  wore  for  them  and  theirs  no 
real  peril.  Above,  on  the  cliffs  of  society, 
they  rolled  down  tale  and  whisper  against 
me  like  so  many  black  stones ;  in  retort, 
though  I  might  be  beautiful  and  so  mad- 
den them  with  the  possession  of  what  they 
lacked,  I  from  below  could  harm  them  nothing. 
I  think,  too,  some  in  pain  of  their  own  ugli- 
ness, envied  and  would  have  changed  places 
with  me.  They  would  not,  had  they  known 
what  I  knew  and  felt  what  I  felt.  My  soul  was 
in  torment,  and  I  grew  never  so  callous  but  the 
darts  of  their  forked  malignancy  would  pierce 
and  pain. 

"  It  was  to  avoid  conditions  which  grew  at 
last  intolerable — for  I  brooded  when  alone  and 
magnified  the  evils  of  my  position,  turning 
morbid  the  while — that  I  wedded  Mr.  Tim- 
berlake.  I  never  loved  him ;  I  took  him  to  be 
a  refuge  rather  than  a  husband,  and  my  little 
life  with  him  was  not  a  happy  one.  By  no 
fault  of  his,  however ;  I  think  he  loved  me,  and 
I  know  he  did  his  best.  I  had  nothing  from 
him  save  kindness,  and  when  he  died  in  the 
Mediterranean  I  doubt  not  he  carried  into  the 
other  world  a  sincere  regard  for  me. 

9' 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"And  I  would  have  loved  him  if  I  could." 
Peg  waved  her  hand  with  an  accent  of  des- 
pair, and  as  one  who  had  striven  and  failed 
beyond  recall.  "  But  I  could  not — could  not ; 
strive  as  I  might,  love  would  not  come.  I  felt 
guilt  to  live  with  him ;  I  was  glad  when  he 
sailed  away  ;  and,  God  help  me  !  my  sighs  over 
his  death  were  the  sighs  of  one  released  from 
bonds." 

Peg  broke  and  cried  like  any  child.  You 
should  understand,  however,  that  she  was  un- 
just to  herself.  What  she  said  of  her  brooding 
aforetime  to  the  frontier  of  the  morbid  was 
over-true.  And,  supersensitive,  proud,  her 
hope  had  wasted  as  her  gloom  grew;  her 
griefs  of  girlhood,  enlarged  many  fold  doubt- 
less, as  she  herself  suspected,  by  stress  of  her 
own  fancy  sorrowing  with  a  wound,  had  left 
solemn  stamp  upon  her ;  and  this  took  far  too 
often  and  unjustly  the  shape  of  self-blame. 
Beneath  all,  and  hidden  deep  within  her  breast, 
Peg  carried  small  opinion  of  herself ;  thought 
herself  selfish,  hard,  shallow,  and  of  no  rich 
depth  of  heart.  She  was  wrong  to  the  core ; 
for  her  inner  self  was  as  beautiful  as  her  face. 
And  yet,  despite  knowledge  on  her  own  part, 
and  her  friends'  assurances,  in  the  ultimate 
recesses  of  her  thoughts  there  existed  a  torture- 
chamber;  and  therein  she  ever  racked  herself 

92 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

as  the  one  wrongdoer  in  what  she  had  passed 
through.  There  was  no  driving  her  from  this; 
she  was  merciless  against  herself;  and  while 
none  not  the  closest  might  know,  for  in  the 
presence  of  non-friends  and  strangers  she 
showed  the  iron  fortitude  of  an  Indian  or  a 
soldier,  to  myself  and  those  with  whom  she 
practiced  no  reserve  these  self-flagellations 
were  much  too  painfully  plain. 

I  say,  folk  near  to  Peg  were  aware  of  this 
morbid  lack  of  soul-vanity  and  good  regard 
for  herself.  There  should  be  one  exception 
counted,  and  that,  curious  to  tell,  her  own  hus- 
band. Peg,  for  all  he  might  be  double  her 
age,  and  I  think  no  very  handsome  man  at  that, 
I  could  see,  when  I  talked  with  her,  loved 
Eaton  as  she  loved  her  eyes  or  mothers  love 
their  children.  And  yet,  never  to  him  did  she 
show  her  true  feeling ;  in  his  presence  she  was 
the  brave,  gay,  bright,  strong,  brilliant  Peg, 
asking  in  the  fight  which  followed  no  quarter 
and  granting  none,  she  seemed  to  the  common 
world.  It  is  curious,  and  presents  a  problem 
too  involved  for  my  solution,  that  Peg  should 
have  guarded  against  the  one  she  most  loved 
and  shut  the  door  upon  discovery  by  him  of 
her  own  wondrous  self.  Yet  so  it  was;  it 
stood  patent  to  me  from  the  beginning  that 

93 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

Eaton  knew  no  more  of  Peg  than  of  her  whom 
he  never  met. 

In  her  morbid  estimates  of  her  worth  it  is 
possible  she  feared  to  grant  him  too  clear  a 
view.  She  may  have  thought  she  would  lose 
by  it.  The  reason,  however,  for  this  great 
secrecy  coupled  with  great  love — this  hiding 
from  him  for  whom  she  would  have  died — I 
shall  leave  to  be  searched  for  by  those  scientists 
of  souls  who  are  pleased  to  explain  the  inex- 
plicable. For  myself,  I  confess  I  was  baffled 
by  it. 

This,  however,  I  will  say  ;  the  fact  that  Peg 
could  so  practice  upon  Eaton  to  his  blindness 
gave  me  no  high  opinion  of  that  gentleman. 
He  should  have  groped  for  her  and  grasped 
her,  and  found  her  out  for  the  loving,  loyal, 
sorrowing  heart  she  was ;  and  that  he  did  not, 
but  went  in  placid  darkness  of  the  treasure  he 
held  in  his  hands,  content  to  have  it  so,  marked 
him  for  a  lack  of  insight  and  want  of  sympathy 
which  I'm  bound  to  say  do  not  distinguish  me. 
Such  stolidity  on  the  part  of  folk  has  caused 
me  more  often  than  once  to  consider  whether 
the  angels,  by  mere  possession,  may  not  at  last 
find  even  heaven  commonplace. 

Still,  it  is  none  the  less  infuriating  to  wit- 
ness so  much  beauty  so  much  thrown  away ! 
Indubitably,  the  economy  of  existence  asks  for 

9* 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

pigs  as  loudly  as  it  asks  for  pearls,  and  to  blame 
Eaton  for  failing  in  appreciation  of  Peg  is  as 
apart  from  equity  as  would  be  the  flogging  of 
a  horse  who  sees  no  beauty  in  a  moss-rose — 
and  less,  perhaps — not  present  in  a  musty  lock 
of  hay.  However,  it  is  none  the  less  infuriat- 
ing for  that. 

Mark  you  though,  I  would  be  guilty  of  no 
wrong  to  Eaton,  nor  establish  him  on  too  low 
a  level  in  your  esteem.  He  was  in  the  Senate 
from  Tennessee  at  the  time,  and  of  solid  repute 
among  his  fellows.  He  was  a  brave,  dull,  good- 
humored  sort,  who  thought  better,  perhaps, 
of  a  bottle  than  of  a  book — not  to  excess,  you 
are  to  notice — and  as  a  statesman,  if  he  put  out 
no  fires,  he  kindled  none ;  though  he  did  no 
good,  at  worst  he  did  no  harm  ;  and  that,  let 
me  tell  you,  is  a  record  somewhat  better  than 
the  average.  I  have  been  attacked  and  charged 
with  a  distaste  of  Eaton.  There  are  two  words 
to  go  with  that,  and  no  one — and  I  challenge 
those  who  knew  us  both — can  put  his  finger  on 
any  ill  of  word  or  deed  or  thought  I  ever 
aimed  against  him.  Truly,  I  hunted  not  his 
company  with  horn  and  horse  and  hound  ;  but 
what  then  ?  I  take  it,  I'm  as  free  to  pick  and 
choose  for  my  intimates  as  any  other.  And  I 
still  declare  what  was  in  my  thoughts  in  those 
hours  I  tell  of,  that  Eaton,  sluggish  and  some- 

95 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

thing  of  a  clod-head,  and  with  a  blurred,  gray 
tone  of  fancy,  was  unworthy  such  a  woman, 
whose  love  for  him,  be  it  said,  was  when  I 
met  her  as  boundless  as  the  difficulty  of  ac- 
counting for  its  first  existence.  I  say  again, 
and  the  last  time,  I  hold  no  dislike  for  Eaton, 
and  more  than  once  have  done  him  good 
favors  in  days  gone.  That  I  shall  grant  him 
no  extensive  mention  in  these  pages  means  no 
more  than  that  he  was  but  a  supernumerary  in 
the  drama  where  of  the  General  and  Peg  carried 
the  great  parts.  Eaton  came  on  and  off  ;  but 
his  lines  were  few  and  brief  and  burned  with 
no  interest.  There  is  little  reason  for  prodi- 
gious clamor  over  Eaton,  and  little  there  will 
be.  But  I  am  not  to  be  accused  of  unfairness 
to  the  man  for  that  he  dwelt  with  an  angel  and 
was  too  thick  to  find  it  out. 

Peg  at  last  recalled  herself  from  the  dead 
Timberlake.  She  brushed  away  her  tears. 

"These  are  all  of  them  you  are  to  see," 
laughed  Peg,  stoutly,  referring  to  her  tears. 
*'  I  promise  to  shed  no  more.  However,  you 
may  quiet  alarm  ;  a  woman's  tears  are  no  such 
mighty  matter."  I  showed  perturbation,  I  sup- 
pose, and  she  would  dissipate  it. 

Peg  told  me  of  her  wedding  with  Eaton. 
She  dwelt  a  deal  on  her  love  for  him ;  but  since 
one  consents  to  it  as  a  sentiment,  even  though 

96 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

its  cause  defy  one's  search,  there  comes  no  call 
to  extend  the  details  in  this  place. 

It  stood  open  to  my  eyes,  however,  as  Peg 
talked,  how  no  man  was  more  loved  than  Eaton. 
And  when  I  looked  upon  the  ardent  girl  and 
considered,  withal,  the  dull  stolidity  of  the 
other,  there  would  rise  up  pictures  from  my 
roving  past  to  be  as  allegories  of  Peg's  love. 
I  would  recall  how  once  I  saw  a  vine,  blossom- 
flecked  and  beautiful,  flinging  its  green  tender- 
ness across  a  hard  insensate  wall ;  and  that  was 
like  Peg's  love.  Or  it  would  come  before  me 
how  I  had  known  a  mountain,  sterile,  seamed, 
unlovely,  where  it  heaved  itself  against  the 
heavens,  a  repellant  harsh  shoulder  of  stone. 
The  June  day,  fresh  and  new  and  beautiful, 
would  blush  in  the  east,  and  her  first  kiss 
was  for  that  cold  gray,  rude,  old  rock.  That 
day  at  noon  in  her  warm  ripeness  would  rest 
upon  it.  Her  latest  glance,  as  our  day  died 
in  the  west,  was  for  it ;  and  when  the  valley 
and  all  about  were  dark,  her  last  rays  crowned 
it.  And  the  vivid  day,  with  her  love  for  that 
unregardful  mountain,  the  rich  day  wasting 
herself  on  the  desert  peak  that  would  neither 
respond  nor  understand,  was  as  the  marvel 
of  Peg's  love. 

It  is  all  the  mystery  that  never  ends; 
woman  in  her  love-reasons  is  not  to  be  fathomed 

97 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

nor  made  plain.  The  cry  of  her  soul  is  to  love 
rather  than  to  be  loved  ;  her  happiness  lives  in 
what  she  gives,  not  what  she  gets.  This  turns 
for  the  good  fortunes  of  men;  also,  it  offers 
the  frequent  spectacle  of  a  woman  squandering 
herself — for  squandering  it  is — on  one  so  un- 
worthy that  only  the  sorrow  of  it  may  serve  to 
smother  the  laughter  that  else  might  be  evoked. 
However,  I  am  not  one  to  discuss  these  things, 
being  no  analyst,  but  only  a  creature  of  bluff 
wits,  too  clumsy  for  theories  as  subtle,  not  to 
say  as  brittle,  as  spun  glass.  Wherefore,  let  us 
put  aside  Peg's  love  and  break  off  prosing. 
The  more,  since  I  may  otherwise  give  some 
value  to  a  jest  of  the  General's — made  on  that 
same  day — who  would  have  it  I  was  at  first 
sight  half  in  love  with  Peg  myself.  This  was 
the  General's  conception  of  humor  ard  owned 
no  other  currency — I,  being  twice  Peg's  age, 
and  in  the  middle  forties,  and  not  a  trifle  bat- 
tered of  feature  by  my  years  in  the  field.  I  was 
old  enough  to  be  Peg's  father; — but  when  it 
comes  to  that,  Eaton  was  quite  as  old. 

It  was  time  to  seek  the  General,  I  said. 
Peg  and  I  had  arrived  at  a  frank  acquaintance, 
and  we  went  together  to  the  General's  room 
in  good  opinion  of  ourselves,  she  the  better 
by  a  new  staunch  friend,  and  I  prosperous  with 
thoughts  for  her  of  a  coming  elevation  con- 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

sistent  with  her  graces  of  mind  and  person, 
and  which  should  atone  as  much  as  might  be 
for  what  she  had  suffered  heretofore.  We  de- 
cided that  Peg  should  wear  a  gay  look,  and 
harrow  the  General  with  no  tears. 

As  we  went  along  I  was  given  to  quite  a 
novel  enthusiasm,  I  recollect ;  and  it  was  the 
more  strange  since,  while  no  pessimist,  I  never 
had  found  celebration  as  one  whose  hope  was 
wont  to  wander  with  the  stars.  I  could  see 
the  white  days  ahead  for  Peg ;  and  albeit  I  fear 
their  glory  shone  not  to  her  apprehension  as  it 
did  to  mine,  and  while  they  came  slowly  as 
days  shod  with  lead,  dawn  they  did,  as  he  shall 
witness  who  goes  with  this  history  to  the  end. 

My  servant  Jim  was  sent  with  a  message 
to  the  General  to  give  him  the  word  of  Peg's 
coming.  During  our  talk  in  the  parlor,  Jim, 
be  it  said,  was  never  far  to  call.  Obviously, 
Jim  proposed  for  me  no  dangers  of  bright 
eyes  so  far  as  remained  with  him  to  be  my 
shield.  He  dodged  in  and  out  of  the  room, 
now  with  this  pretext  and  now  with  that,  and 
when  I  bade  him  repair  to  the  General  to  say 
that  Peg  and  I  would  visit  him,  the  gray  old 
rogue  was  fair  irresolute,  and  hung  in  the  wind 
as  though  he  had  but  to  turn  his  back  on  us 
and  bring  down  every  evil.  I  drove  him  forth 
at  last,  and  when  Peg  and  I  would  tap  on  the 

99 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

General's  door  our  black  courier  was  just  com- 
ing away. 

While  the  General  was  greeting  Peg — 
rather  effusively  for  him,  so  I  thought — Jim, 
detaining  me  at  the  door,  took  the  liberty  of 
a  private  word. 

"  Now  you-all  is  yere,  Marse  Major,"  ob- 
served Jim,  and  his  manner  was  of  complaint 
and  weariness,  "  an'  where  Marse  Gen'ral  kin 
keep  a  eye  on  you,  I  feels  free  an'  safe  to  go 
projectin'  'round  about  my  own  consarns.  I 
was  boun'  I  wouldn't  leave  you  alone,  Marse 
Major,  in  d'  parlors ;  I  shore  tells  you  it  makes 
Jim  draw  long  brefs  an'  puts  him  to  fear  an' 
tremblin'  lest  every  minute's  gwine  to  be  his 
nex',  while  any  woman  as  han'some  as  dish  yere 
Missis  Eaton  is  pesterin'  nigh.  You-all  can't 
tell  what  dey'll  do,  or  what  you'll  do  !  Which 
Jim  has  knowed  Love  to  up  an'  prounce  on  a 
man  like  a  mink  on  a  settin'  hen ;  an'  him  jes' 
merely  lookin'  at  one  of  them  sirens,  as  d'  good 
book  calls  'em.  That's  d'  shore  enough  fac'» 
Marse  Major;  an'  you-all  oughter  be  mighty 
keerful  an'  keep  Jim  hoverin'  about  d'  lan'scape 
at  all  sech  meetin's.  It's  a  heap  safer,  that 
a-way;  you  hyar  Jim!"  At  this  point  of 
warning  Jim  stopped  like  a  clock  that  has  run 
down. 

"  You   asked  me  if  you   might   have   one 

100 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

drink  from  the  demijohn  in  my  closet,"  I  said. 

"  Yassir,  Marse  Major,  I  does." 

"You  took  four,  you  scoundrel;  you  took 
at  least  four,  as  I  can  tell  by  the  mill-wheel 
clatter  of  your  tongue." 

"  On'y  three,  Marse  Major;  on'y  three! 
An'  you  don't  want  to  disrecollect,  Marse 
Major,  pore  old  Jim's  got  a  heap  on  his  mind 
to  make  him  thirsty." 

"  I  shall  not  disrecollect,  as  you  call  it,  to 
lock  my  closet  door.  I  don't  propose,  sir,  to 
furnish  you  forty-year-old  whisky  to  become 
the  inspiration  of  such  crazy  harangues  as  I've 
just  listened  to." 

My  voice  was  stern,  and  the  awful  threat 
of  locking  the  closet  door  took  vastly  the 
heart  out  of  Jim. 

"Why,  Marse  Major,"  he  began  apolo- 
getically, "Jim  warn't  aimin'  to  say  nothin'  to 
cumfusticate  you ;  Jim  was  talkin'  for  your 
good.  I  wouldn't  go  for  to  lock  up  that 
closet,  Marse  Major;  how's  Jim  gwine  to  get 
your  clothes  to  bresh?  Besides,  Jim's  done 
said  his  say,  an'  arter  this  he'll  nacherally  go 
about  as  cat-foot  an'  as  wary  an'  as  quiet  as  a 
coon  at  noon,  that's  what  Jim  will.  You  has 
heard  d'  las'  word  from  Jim,  Marse  Major; 
d'  very  las'  word.  On'y  don't  go  for  to  lock 
that  closet  door;  if  you  does,  most  likely  we'll 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

lose  d'  key  an'  it's  gwine  to  get  in  our  way." 

"Well,  sir,  we  shall  see,"  I  replied,  severely. 
"One  thing  is  certain;  I'm  not  to  have  my 
servant,  at  the  age  of  seventy,  make  a  drunken 
show  of  himself.  I'll  send  you  back  to  Ten- 
nessee first." 

Jim  departed,  sensibly  subdued. 

With  Peg  and  the  General  I  found  Eaton, 
who  arrived  while  I  was  receiving  my  lecture 
from  the  sapient  Jim.  We  greeted  each  other 
with  warmth,  and  I  could  see  that  Peg  felt 
this  warmth  and  took  a  glow  from  it.  Dear 
girl  I  he  was  her  all ;  she  had  friendship  for 
those  who  were  his  friends,  love  for  those  who 
loved  him ;  and,  twisting  a  commandment,  Peg 
would  do  unto  others  as  they  did  unto  him. 

Eaton  was  a  blond,  ruddy  man.  As  we 
released  each  other's  hands,  he  said  :  "I'm  here 
to  offer  my  thanks  to  the  General.  I  was 
speaking  of  this  cabinet  matter  to  my  colleague, 
White.  He  is  greatly  pleased.  By  the  way, 
General, " — here  Eaton  wheeled  on  the  General 
— "  my  senate  seat  will  want  an  occupant.  Why 
not  prevail  on  our  friend,  the  Major,  to  take 
it?" 

"  No,  no !"  responded  tha  General,  quickly 
and  with  a  gay  energy  ;  "  that  would  never 
match  my  plans.  The  Major,  or  I  much  mis- 
take, must  go  with  me  to  the  White  House. 

102 


PEG'S    MEETING    WITH    THE    MAJOR 

I  could  not  carry  on  my  administration  unless 
I  found  him  quarreling  at  my  elbow  whenever 
I  turned  my  head." 

"And  if  'carry  on'  be  the  name  of  it, 
who  is  to  carry  on  my  farms  ?"  I  asked. 

This  I  put  seriously  ;  it  stood  much  to  the 
left  hand  of  any  programme  of  mine,  this  mak- 
ing one  of  the  General's  White  House  family. 

"Who  will  carry  on  your  farms  ?"  repeated 
the  General.  "  Why,  then,  who  is  to  carry  on 
mine  ?  Do  you  mean  that  you,  who  have  put 
me  here,  are  about  to  desert  me  ?  Nonsense, 
man  ;  there  is  no  room  in  your  body,  big  as  it 
is,  for  so  gross  a  treason.  If  I  stay,  you  stay; 
and  that's  nailed  down." 

"  And  surely  you  wouldn't  abandon  me  ?" 
said  Peg,  bringing  her  pretty  face  something 
near  to  my  shoulder.  Then,  low  and  pleading : 
"  Me  ;  with  trouble  frowning  ?" 

Who  was  there  to  stand  up  against  both 
Peg  and  the  General  ?  I  made  no  breathless  bat- 
tle of  it,  you  may  guess. 

11  Major,  I've  been  telling  this  child,"  said 
the  General,  laying  his  thin  hand  on  Peg's 
curly  mop  of  hair,  "  how  at  our  receptions  she'll 
light  up  that  great  East  Room  with  the  bright 
face  of  her.  We  shall  require  all  the  beauty  we 
can  muster,  since  the  administration  is  like  to 
go  limping  in  the  business  of  looks.  Van 

103 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

Buren  and  Barry  are  wifeless;  and  I'm  told 
Mrs.  Ingham  is  forbiddingly  hideous,  with 
the  voice  of  a  henhawk.  You  see,  my  child," 
turning  to  Peg,  "  we  build  on  you  to  save  our 
day  from  the  sin  of  ugliness." 

Peg's  eyes  danced,  and  she  seemed  to  bask 
in  prospects  naught  save  sunshine.  She  was 
far  from  that  broken  one  of  sobs  and  sorrows 
whose  hand  I  held  a  short  half  hour  before. 
A  great  woman  is  ever  a  great  actress  ;  Peg  was 
proving  it  now  ;  for  with  a  face  all  light,  her 
heart  was  a  heart  of  shadows,  and  heavy  with 
the  forebode  of  dark  days  coming  down. 
What  a  paradox  is  woman !  Here  was  Peg, 
brave  at  once,  and  fearful — afraid  for  her 
husband,  while  quick  with  courage  for  him,  find- 
ing her  peril  where  she  found  her  strength. 

",We  are  living,"  remarked  Eaton,  as  he 
tucked  Peg  under  his  arm  preparatory  to  their 
departure,  "  we  are  living  on  the  Georgetown 
side  of  the  President's  Square.  General,  we 
won't,  while  you  are  in  the  White  House,  have 
a  far  journey  when  we  visit  you.  Major,  you 
must  call  on  us." 

"  Indeed,  you  must!"  echoed  Peg. 

As  the  two  took  their  leave,  and  the  Gen- 
eral, having  bowed  the  little  lady  to  the  door, 
sought  his  never-failing  pipe,  Jim  reappeared, 
and  with  a  caution  that  bordered  upon  mystery 
104 


PEG'S    MEETING   WITH   THE   MAJOR 
put  a  penciled  note  in  my  hand.     It  read: 

"  Mr.  Noah  presents  his  compliments  to  the  Major;  and 
will  the  Major  do  Mr.  Noah  the  honor  to  meet  him  immediately 
in  the  card  room  ?  It  is  considered  advisable  by  Mr.  Noah  to 
say  nothing  to  the  General  concerning  this  message." 

The  note  went  into  my  pocket,  the  Gen- 
eral, luckily  involved  with  his  pipe,  which  for 
some  stubbornness  concealed  within  the  stem 
refused  to  draw,  failing  to  notice.  This  was 
as  should  be,  for  the  General  was  as  inquisitive 
and  prompt  with  query  as  a  girl.  Even  now 
he  asked  where  I  was  bound. 

"  I've  had  nothing  to  eat  as  yet,"  I  re. 
turned. 

"  That's  true  ;  I  had  forgotten.  Come 
back  when  you  are  finished ;  there's  a  deal  to 
talk  about.  I  shall  need  you  to  help  me  make 
up  my  mind." 

"  Help  you  unmake  it,  you  mean,"  I  re- 
plied. 

There  was  an  exchange  of  grins.  I  had 
exactly  stated  the  case ;  and,  as  a  grave  truth 
will  on  occasion,  it  struck  our  sense  of  the 
ridiculous.  It  had  been  my  work  for  years ; 
it  would  be  my  work  for  the  eight  years  yet 
to  come  ;  this  unmaking  of  the  General's  mind. 

On  my  way  to  the  card  room  I  asked  Jim, 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

who  was  close  behind,  where  he  got  the  message. 

11  Marse  Major,  Jim  done  obtains  it  from 
that  red-head  Jew  gentleman  I  sees  romancin' 
'round  yere  this  mornin'.  An'  say,  Marse  Ma- 
jor ;  don't  you-all  reckon  Jim  better  skuffle  for 
your  room  an'  fotch  your  box  of  pistols?" 

"Pistols!"  I  exclaimed,  stopping  short; 
"what  in  the  name  of  General  Jackson  do  I 
want  of  pistols?" 

"  Oh,  nothin',  Marse  Major,  jest  nothin'," 
said  Jim,  shifting  uneasily  on  his  feet.  "  It's 
simply  one  of  them  old-time  Cumberland  idees 
of  Jim's.  D'  fac'  is,  Marse  Major,  Jim  sort 
o'  allows  from  d'signs  how  dish  yere  red-head 
Jew  gentleman's  gwine  to  have  a  fight." 


106 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  JEW   AND    HIS   SPANISH    SWORD 

Jim's  surmise  of  trouble  on  the  brew  set 
fire  to  my  feet.  At  the  door  of  the  card  room 
I  met  Duff  Green  coming  out — Duff  of  the 
Oporto  nose.  I  barely  nodded ;  I  could  taste 
of  insincerity  and  a  suave  false  slyness  on  the 
man  as  one  smells  secret  fire  in  a  house. 

As  I  pushed  into  the  card  room,  while  it 
was  well  filled  of  folk,  my  first  glance  revealed 
nothing  to  justify  Jim's  fears.  There  was 
Noah,  truly;  and  sitting  with  him  that  Ken- 
tucky Yankee,  the  anxious  Amos  Kendall. 
Isaac  Hill,  gray  and  thin,  and  limping  with  his 
club-foot,  was  also  about.  These  were  the 
General's  friends ;  there  was  naught  to  antici- 
pate of  a  misunderstanding  with  Noah  from 
them. 

And  for  all  that,  Jim  was  right ;  calm  as 
showed  the  surface,  there  ran  an  undertow  of 
conversation  which  flowed  for  storm.  Jim, 
who  lived  long  among  fighting  men  on  fighting 
ground,  had  attained  perhaps  some  sharpened 
sense  for  the  sign  or  sound  of  approaching 
strife,  and  could  foretell  it  while  yet  a  mile  away. 

107 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

Kendall  was  by  Noah's  side,  and  Hill  had 
paused  at  his  elbow;  yet  it  was  with  neither  of 
these  he  was  engaged.  Against  the  corner  of 
a  mantelpiece,  and  two  paces  from  Noah, 
leaned  a  young  man  of  dissolute  look.  His 
name,  I  learned,  was  Catron,  and  he  came  from 
Port  Tobacco,  a  small  hamlet  in  the  southern 
toe  of  Maryland.  Evidently,  Catron  was  of  an 
upper  class  in  his  country,  as  his  dress,  and 
fine  hands,  smallish  and  unmarred  of  toil,  would 
give  a  signal.  He  had  been  drinking,  but 
seemed  more  vicious  than  drunk. 

Catron  was  doing  the  talking,  and  with  a 
manner  of  itself  an  insult  seemed  bent  for 
altercation. 

"  Don't  cross  the  run  of  things,"  warned 
Noah,  in  a  whisper,  as  I  marked  my  advent  by 
dropping  a  hand  upon  his  shoulder;  "I  am 
glad  you  are  come ;  but  don't  interfere.  Affairs 
go  famously." 

Willing  to  gain  some  insight  of  the  trend 
of  traffic,  I  paused  behind  Noah's  chair. 

"That  I  should  cross  words,"  Catron  was 
saying,  "  with  a  Jackson  Jew  does  not  tell  in 
favor  of  my  respectability.  It  is  what  one 
must  look  for,  however,  when  the  beggars  of 
politics  are  promoted  to  the  saddle." 

"Your  epithet  of  'Jackson  Jew,"  re- 
sponded Noah,  quietly,  "  I  take  for  myself, 

108 


THE  JEW  AND  His  SPANISH  SWORD 

and  am  much  flattered  thereby.  And  you 
are  also  to  remember  there  are  weapons 
other  than  words  which  one  may  cross 
with  me  whenever  one's  valor  arouses  to 
that  pitch.  Jew,  yes  1  my  ancestors  were 
poets,  lawgivers — they  read  the  stars,  and 
collected  the  wisdom  and  the  learning  of 
the  world,  when  the  slant-skulled  fore-fathers 
of  upstairs  I  might  indicate  went  clothed  of 
sheepskin  and  club,  ate  their  meat  raw,  and 
saved  their  fire  to  pray  to." 

All  this  flowed  from  Noah  in  tones  modu- 
late and  sweet.  I  began  to  wonder  at  my  fair- 
haired  friend ;  not  unskilled  in  colloquy  of 
this  sort,  it  beat  upon  me  that  Noah,  himself, 
was  wanting  an  encounter. 

"  If  I  were  to  own  my  way,"  said  Catron, 
paying  no  heed  to  Noah's  intimation  of  a 
stone-age  savagery  as  the  state  of  his  forebears. 
"  if  I  might  have  my  way,  I'd  exclude  every 
shoe-lace  Jew  from  the  country." 

"  Doubtless;  if  you  were  to  have  but  your 
own  way,"  purred  Noah.  "  And  yet,  observe 
the  injustice  you  propose.  The  Jew  is  as  much 
the  American  as  you.  My  father  fought  for 
this  country;  I  have  fought  for  it;  the  Jews 
found  and  gave  one-third  of  that  money  which 
won  the  Revolution.  The  Jews  wasted  their 

109 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

treasure  and  their  blood  like  water  for  inde- 
pendence, while  folk  one  wots  of  were  filling 
the  roles  of  Royalists  and  upholding  the  hands 
of  the  King." 

There  now  fell  out  a  deal  of  talk  to  little 
purpose,  I  thought,  and  I  was  on  the  tip  of 
telling  Noah  so,  when  someone  from  over  my 
shoulder  flung  a  remark. 

"  You  are  he,"  said  this  man — his  name 
was  Witherspoon,  and  he  a  Clay  Kentuckian — 
"you  are  he,"  addressing  Noah,  "who  had  this 
country  stricken  from  the  muster  of  Christian 
nations.  You  caused  the  Bey  of  Tunis  to 
make  the  decision." 

"  I  but  caused  the  Bey  to  expound  our 
constitution,"  said  Noah,  looking  carelessly 
back  at  Witherspoon. 

While  I  was  turning  these  last  remarks  in 
my  mind,  and  gnawing  the  enigma  they  offered, 
Catron  broke  forth  with  a  cataract  of  maledic- 
tion upon  the  General,  and  Noah  and  any  and 
all  who  stood  the  former's  supporters.  It  was 
a  flood  of  abuse  that  told  strongly  for  the 
ruffian's  muddy  powers. 

"And  now  this  precious  Jackson  of 
yours," — these  were  Catron's  closing  words — 
"this  murderer!  this  thief  of  other  men's 
wives  I  would  insult  the  decency  of  our  capitol 
with  a  courtesan  in  his  cabinet." 


THE  JEW  AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

"Meaning  whom?"  asked  Noah,  half 
rising. 

Noah's  words  had  the  fiber  of  triumph; 
he  put  his  question  as  might  he  who  had 
trapped  that  result  which  he  went  seeking  from 
the  start. 

"Who?"  retorted  the  other;  "who,  save 
that  Peg  O'Neal  who  was  as  common  as  the 
streets  she  walked." 

"You  lie;  you  rogue  and  dog  of  Henry 
Clay,  you  lie !" 

Noah  fair  spat  out  the  words ;  it  was  as 
though  they  came  freighted  with  the  venom  of 
the  viper. 

Catron  growled  an  oath  and  leaped  to- 
wards Noah.  He  was  met  flush  in  the  face 
with  a  glass  of  whiskey  which  Noah  in  most 
casual  fashion  had  just  poured.  I  had  foreseen 
Noah's  purpose ;  I'd  heard  him  say  he  drank 
no  spirits. 

For  the  moment  Catron  was  stopped,  the 
bite  and  anguish  of  the  alcohol  in  his  eyes 
making  him  as  a  blind  man.  As  Noah  threw 
the  liquor,  I  seized  him  by  the  wrist ;  so  far  it 
had  been  gentleman's  work;  I  did  not  want 
him  to  spoil  his  position  by  throwing  the  glass. 

"  Don't    grip    so    hard,"   warned    Noah, 
making  not  the  least  of  struggle ;  "  don't  grip 
so  hard.     I  shall  anon  need  this  hand  for  what 
in 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

is  in  store ;  that  grasp  like  a  hand-vise  will 
weaken  it  for  a  sword,  or  shake  it  for  a 
pistol." 

Never  was  I  more  played  upon  and  pleased 
than  by  the  coolness  of  Noah,  who  showed  as 
steady,  not  to  say  indifferent,  as  he  who  acts  a 
part  in  a  theater. 

"  I  shall  have  your  life  for  this!"  screamed 
Catron,  who,  in  the  hands  of  friends  and  still 
blind  of  the  whiskey,  was  carried  to  another 
room. 

When  something  like  peace  fell,  I  asked 
Noah  to  explain.  I  would  understand  this 
violence ;  the  more  since  it  looked  to  be  half- 
plan  on  Noah's  part.  Kendall  and  Hill  were 
with  us  and  made  four  for  our  conversation. 

"What  is  the  riddle,  then?"  I  said.  "I 
got  your  note ;  what  was  it  you  desired?" 

"  Nothing,  save  your  presence,"  he  re- 
plied. "  As  you  observe,  I  was  provoking  a 
fight — not  a  most  amiable  attitude,  I  confess. 
But  you  will  hear  my  reasons.  Since  I  saw 
you,  I  have  found  how  there  exists  a  clique  of 
bloods — they  are  of  both  the  Clay  and  Calhoun 
parties — who  go  about  grossly  assailing  Mrs. 
Eaton.  There  is  concert  in  their  villainy  ;  and 
they  relax  themselves  at  intervals  with  threats 
of  violence  against  any  who  shall  take  Mrs. 
Eaton's  part.  A  duel — a  prompt,  sharp  duel, 


THE  JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

with  a  wound  or  two — is  the  best,  in  truth ! 
the  only  way  to  stifle  them.  There  is  nothing 
like  steel  or  lead  to  teach  such  gentry  mild- 
ness and  a  Christian  spirit." 

Noah  laughed  over  the  adjective. 

"  And  have  you  put  yourself  forward,"  I 
demanded,  "  as  that  master  who  is  to  give  these 
lessons  of  lead  and  steel?" 

"What  could  be  better?"  returned  Noah. 
"  I  am  cold  and  steady,  and  not  apt  for  error. 
Again,  I  am  of  no  such  overt  and  particular 
emphasis  in  the  General's  designs  as  to  link 
his  name  too  much  with  this  ruffle.  Since  it  is 
to  be,  I  think  I  am  excellently  the  hand  for  the 
work;  and  I  hold  it  fortunate  I  am  here  when 
I  so  dovetail  with  events." 

"And  what  is  to  come?"  said  I. 

"  Indubitably,  a  challenge,"  broke  in  Ken- 
dall. "  The  Maryland  Catrons  are  of  touch- 
wood stock.  They  duel  for  their  pleasure." 
Then  with  an  inflection  of  warning.  "  This  Ca- 
tron  will  ask  for  swords !" 

"  Swords  should  do  exceeding  well,"  re- 
marked Noah.  "  It  should  go  through  sharply, 
this  affair,  for  the  best  moral  effect  on  others 
of  his  ill-tongued  clan.  With  swords  we  might 
fight  in  a  room,  since  they  make  no  noise.  Let 
us  meet  at  once.  In  an  hour  this  Catron's 
113 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

eyes  will  cease  to  burn,  and  he'll  see  the  better 
for  it." 

"  But,  mind  you,  Catron  is  a  master  of  the 
sword,"  said  Kendall.  "He  had  the  best 
teachers  in  Florence." 

"  Should  he  show  you  my  blood,"  returned 
Noah,  coldly,  "  I  will  avouch  him  the  best 
fencer  of  America." 

There  would  be  a  duel,  so  much  I  could 
tell.  And  yet  the  situation  put  me  to  deepest 
thought.  I  was  sorry  for  Peg's  name  in  it, 
too ;  that  would  mean  no  end  of  talk. 

"There  is  no  end  of  talk  as  it  stands,"  ar- 
gued Noah.  "  It  were  best  to  make  Mrs. 
Eaton's  fame  the  issue.  I  could  have  forced  a 
quarrel  on  his  insults  for  that  I  was  a  Jew. 
But  I  hold  it  better  as  it  is.  Mrs.  Eaton  was 
the  one  question  worth  duelling  with  such  a 
bully  about;  but  for  the  duel  to  be  of  sup- 
pressive  virtue,  it  is  required  to  have  the  casus 
belli  surely  shown. " 

Noah  was  profoundly  right  in  these  argu- 
ments ;  the  next  day's  sequel  of  silence  on  the 
cautious  parts  of  our  anti-Eaton  swashbucklers 
remarked  as  much. 

"You  speak  of  this  Catron  as  a  bully," 
commented  Hill.  "  I  know  nothing  of  your 
code,  for  it  does  not  obtain  in  New  Hampshire. 

"4 


THE  JEW   AND    His    SPANISH    SWORD 

But  is  a  gentleman  bound  to  take  notice  of  the 
vaporings  of  a  bully — a  mere  blackguard?" 

"  One  may  be  a  bully,"  returned  the  steady 
Noah,  u  and  none  the  less  patrician  for  that. 
Indeed,  your  prince  oft  takes  his  purple  blood 
for  license.  Who  was  Alcibiades  but  a  bully- 
boy  of  Athens?  Who  have  been  the  bullies  of 
London  town,  with  their  Mohocks  and  Hell 
Fire  Clubs,  but  the  nobility  and  royal  princes? 
No,  believe  me,  sir;"  and  Noah's  lip  twitched 
sarcastically,  "  the  bully's  blood  is  sometimes 
blue." 

It  was  settled  that  I  should  second  the  in- 
terests of  Noah.  At  a  first  blink,  this  arrange- 
ment might  have  the  look  of  the  General's  fat 
in  the  fire,  since  we  professed  anxiety  to  keep 
his  name  clear  of  the  muddle.  But  there  are 
two  ends  to  a  lane ;  our  purpose  was  attained 
when  the  General's  want  of  personal  knowl- 
edge found  demonstration.  That  plain,  it  was 
next  good  to  have  it  understood  how  the  Jack- 
son interest  was  at  the  Noah  shoulder.  These 
reasons,  and  because  I  owned  experience  of 
such  arbitraments — for  I  had  lived  where  pis- 
tols, barking  at  ten  paces,  were  rife  enough — 
taught  Noah  his  preference  for  me  over  Ken- 
dall and  Hill,  who  had  seen  fewer  of  these 
bickers,  the  latter  none  at  all. 

"They  will  be  the  challenging  party,"  I 

"5 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

observed  to  Noah;  "that  gives  us  the  choice 
of  arms." 

"Should  Kendall  be  right,"  said  Noah, 
"  as  to  the  Florentine  studies  of  our  friend,  he 
will  prefer  swords.  Suppose  you  concede 
swords  on  condition  he  fight  at  once." 

Even  while  we  conferred,  there  came  Pi- 
geon-breast, my  friend  of  the  clanking  saber 
and  gold  heels,  to  wait  upon  us.  The  sight  of 
me  as  sponsor  for  Noah  caused  Pigeon-breast 
a  dubious  start ;  possibly  he  feared  lest  the 
General  resent  his  presence  as  the  avowed  ally 
of  the  enemy.  Indeed  poor  Pigeon-breast  ex- 
pressed his  thought. 

14  It  is  to  be  hoped,"  faltered  Pigeon- 
breast,  in  his  high-pitched  tenor,  "you  will 
represent  me,  sir,  in  certain  quarters  you 
know  of,  as  acting  solely  for  the  honor  of  my 
friend.  My  personal  position  as  to  the  subject 
matter  of  the  quarrel  must  not  be  deduced 
from  that." 

I  maintained  myself  with  gravity,  as  folk 
about  a  litigation  of  honor  should ;  also,  I  set 
Pigeon-breast  easy  on  risks  and  perils  for  him- 
self. In  the  matter  of  weapons  Pigeon-breast 
fair  fell  upon  my  neck. 

"  It  is  for  you  to  name  weapons,"  quoth 
Pigeon-breast.  Then,  with  hesitation  :  "  If  it 
nl 


THE   JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

meet  your  view,  however,  we  for  our  side  would 
welcome  swords."  i 

u  And  that  is  a  highly  improper  remark, 
permit  me  to  say."  My  attitude  was  purposely 
severe.  It  would  throw  Pigeon-breast  into  con- 
fusion. "  Since  the  choice  is  with  us,  it  is 
neither  graceful  nor  safe  for  you  to  try  to 
lead  it." 

"Surely,"  protested  Pigeon-breast,  "I  meant 
no  unfairness,  no  offence.  But  with  swords, 
sir,  this  might  come  quietly  off  in  town. 
Should  you  say  pistols,  it  will  mean  Bladens- 
burg;  and  the  mud  is  girth  deep." 

At  the  word  "  mud,"  poor  Pigeon-breast 
gazed  upon  his  varnished  boots  and  bandbox 
regimentals  with  round  eyes  of  apprehension. 
I  took  advantage  of  Pigeon-breast's  solicitude 
and  feminine  terror  of  Bladensburg  mire  to 
say  that  if  we  might  have  our  men  up  at 
once,  it  would  tell  strongly  in  favor  of  swords. 
Of  course,  my  haste  was  to  have  the  thing 
finished  before  some  waifword  of  it  reached 
the  General's  ear. 

"  Why,  I  believe  an  hour  from  now,"  said 
Pigeon-breast,  hopefully,  "  might  suit  us  ex- 
tremely well.  That  would  make  it  sharp  noon. 
Shall  we  say  noon  ?" 

"  And  the  ball  room  at  Gadsby's?"  I  re- 
turned. Having  considered,  I  deemed  it  best 

117 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

to  be  out  of  the  Indian  Queen  with  this  clash. 

Gadsby's  was  to  the  taste  of  Pigeon-breast; 
it  would  serve  admirably.  Also,  Pigeon-breast 
would  bring  a  brace  of  rapiers. 

Thus  was  it  adjusted  between  the  militant 
Pigeon-breast  and  myself.  Pigeon-breast  with- 
drew, giving  me  a  most  sweeping  bow ;  but 
carefully  keeping  his  hand  to  himself,  by  which 
I  saw  that  he  was  not  unversed  in  the  etiquette 
of  the  field. 

Returning  to  Noah,  I  laid  before  him  our 
arrangements  ;  incidentally,  I  would  get  a  mor- 
sel of  food,  since  I  had  had  none  that  morning, 
and  my  stomach  was  much  inclined  to  take  this 
neglect  in  dudgeon. 

Having  a  private  parlor  to  ourselves,  for 
Kendall  and  Hill  would  lunch  with  me,  I  sent 
for  what  we  craved  and  urged  dispatch.  The 
repast  was  brought,  and  while  we  did  it  honor 
with  knife  and  fork,  Noah  sipped  a  thimbleful 
of  sherry,  saying  he  accepted  it  to  quicken  the 
eye  and  give  vigor  and  pliancy  to  the  wrist. 

As  we  lunched,  Noah  called  for  a  mes- 
senger. 

"Find  Mr.  Rivera,"  said  Noah;  "bring 
him  to  me  here." 

There  was  a  question  on  my  tongue;  it 
covered  the  charge  tossed  over  my  shoulder  by 
the  man,  Witherspoon,  that  Noah  had  fixed 
i  si 


THE   JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

the    country's   status  as   a  nation    of   heathen 
among  the  powers  of  the  earth. 

"The  statement  is  true,"  said  Noah;  "the 
story  is  brief.  It  was  during  the  last  war,  and 
while  I  represented  the  country  in  Tunis.  A 
Yankee  privateer,  little  but  valiant,  came  into 
port  towing  a  hulking  English  merchantman, 
whereof,  cutlass  in  hand,  he  had  made  prize. 
The  Yankee  would  have  the  merchantman  con- 
demned in  the  courts  of  Tunis,  and  sold.  The 
British  minister  objected;  he  recalled  the  Bey, 
before  whom  we  both  appeared,  to  his  treaty 
made  with  England.  One  clause  precluded 
the  use  of  Tunis  as  a  port  of  condemnation 
for  English  ships  made  prize  in  wars  between 
England  and  any  other  '  Christian  nation.'  The 
phrase  was  '  Christian  nation.'  There  was  no 
going  about  the  treaty;  it  stood  in  ink  and 
sheepskin.  Whereupon  I  read  the  learned 
Bey — himself  a  darkened  pagan — our  constitu- 
tion. I  showed  him  we  were  not  a  '  Christian 
nation,'  but  admitted  every  creed  or  sect  or 
sept  or  faith  of  men,  Gentile  or  Jew  or  Mus- 
selman,  and  all  on  common  terms.  It  was  im- 
possible we  should  be  a  '  Christian  nation;'  the 
treaty  with  England  did  not  in  this  instance  tie 
his  hands.  The  Bey  held  with  me ;  America 
was  not  a  'Christian  nation;'  the  prize  was 
condemned  and  sold.  The  Bey  would  receive 

119 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

one-fifth  of  the  proceeds  of  that  sale ;  which 
may  or  may  not  have  aided  his  wisdom  to  the 
decision  I've  described.  Still,  it  was  a  de- 
cision; and  since  it  never  has  been  quarreled 
with  or  overturned,  a  heathen  country  we  re- 
main to  this  day  in  the  eye  of  international 
law." 

As  Noah  ended  his  scrap  of  history,  a  tall 
young  man,  square  and  heavy  of  shoulders, 
and  with  every  movement  of  his  body  as 
smoothly  sure  and  sinuous  as  the  movements 
of  a  cat,  appeared.  He  was  that  Rivera  for 
whom  Noah  had  sent. 

"Go  to  my  rooms  and  bring  me  a  pair  of 
swords,"  said  Noah. 

"The  smallswords?"  asked  Rivera,  with 
just  a  thought  of  interest. 

"No;  the  Spanish  swords." 

"Who  is  your  armorer?"  I  asked  of  Noah 
when  Rivera  was  gone. 

This  boy  I  had  come  across  before.  He 
had  drawn  himself  upon  my  attention  by  the 
panther  grace  and  strength  told  of  in  his 
motions.  Large,  long  of  limb,  and  heavy, 
there  was  yet  a  brisk  lightness  with  him  to 
hold  one  like  a  spell. 

"  His  name,"  responded  Noah,  "  is  Rivera 
— Michael  Rivera — and  his  blood  flows  a  fantas- 
tic, almost  a  formidable  mixture.  His  mother 

120 


THE   JEW   AND    His    SPANISH    SWORD 

was  a  maid  of  my  mother ;  an  Irish  lass  she 
was,  and  came  out  of  Tipperary.  The  father, 
on  the  far  other  hand,  was  a  Spanish  Jew;  by 
trade  a  bull-fighter,  the  foremost  toreador  of 
Seville,  where,  when  my  family  was  visiting  in 
Spain,  the  impressionable  Tipperary  maiden 
lost  her  heart  to  him  as  he  flourished  bloodily 
about  the  arena.  They  were  married  by  the 
padre,  for  Rivera  senior,  while  pure  Jew,  was 
none  the  less  pure  Catholic  ;  under  Spanish  law 
he  could  have  had  no  place  among  the  bull-fight- 
ers else,  since  in  Spain  it  is  not  permitted  to 
be  cruel  unless  one  first  be  Christian.  My  pro- 
tege, who  goes  for  the  swords,  is  the  fruit  of 
that  union;  now,  his  parents  being  dead,  and 
because  he  was  born  among  my  people,  he 
abides  with  me.  He  has  a  drowsy,  honest 
soul — though  hot  enough  when  moved — and  he 
loves  me.  He  would  accept  death  for  me  like 
a  dog." 

"And  what  is  his  part  with  you?"  asked 
Kendall.  The  tale  of  Rivera  interested  us. 

"No  part,"  responded  Noah,  "more  than 
to  go  where  I  go,  and  come  where  I  come; 
to  fetch  and  to  carry  and  to  do  my  word. 
He  is  well  taught  of  books  ;  but  owns  ideas 
not  at  all,  for  he  has  no  width  nor  current 
of  conjecture.  Yet  you  are  not  to  believe 
him  a  fool.  He  is  silent,  but  blithe  to 


PEGGY  O          NE 

obey,  and  true  as  blade  to  hilt.  I  keep 
for  he  would  have  otherwise  no  support.  If  I 
turned  him  on  the  world,  he  could  not  make  a 
dollar — nor  guard  it  if  he  should.  In  that  fis- 
cal particular,  the  Jew  in  him  has  balked  and 
broken  down."  Noah  laughed  lightly.  "  The 
faithful  Rivera,"  he  went  on,  u  has,  however, 
certain  advantages.  There  is  a  compensation, 
an  equilibrium,  in  nature.  Rivera,  slow  of  brain, 
possesses  the  muscle-power  of  a  Hercules ; 
moreover,  in  those  twin  arts  of  boxing  and 
wrestling,  it's  to  be  doubted  if  his  over-lord 
exists.  Some  day,  in  some  moment  of  bru- 
tality— being  now  and  again  overtaken  of  such 
— I  shall  have  Rivera  to  England  to  beat  Ben- 
digo  and  Ward.  The  prize-ring  is  his  one 
opening  for  eminence.  And  I — as  does  the 
immortal  Byron,  who  has  more  pride  of  fisti- 
cuffs than  verse — applaud  the  ring." 

While  Noah  talked,  I  was  yielding  him  my 
meed  of  tacit  admiration.  Here  was  a  man,  a 
creature  of  quills  and  ink,  too,  within  minutes 
of  meeting,  edge  to  edge,  with  one  keen  of  his 
weapon,  and  a  declared  adept  among  sword 
fighters.  And  clearly,  the  business  was  no  more 
upon  his  spirit  than  if  the  day  bore  no  grim 
promise,  but  only  smiles.  It  was  more  than 
-courage,  it  was  the  absolute  absence  of  fear; 
he  leaned  back  with  his  sherry,  and  the  little 

122 


THE  JEW    AND    His    SPANISH    SWORD 

story  of  his  young  Spanish  Irish-Jew,  as  though 
hate  were  not  at  that  same  moment  of  time 
whetting  a  rapier  with  hope  against  his  life.  His 
foreclaim  of  being  cold  and  steady  was  not  a 
boast  which  wanted  feet  to  stand  upon. 

Rivera  came  back,  bearing  the  swords 
wrapped  from  casual  eye  in  the  folds  of  a  cloak. 
I  drew  one — a  plain  rapier  or  Spanish  sword — 
and  of  as  superb  temper  as  any  to  come  from 
its  birth-forge  of  Toledo. 

"  They  are  brothers,  those  swords,"  said 
Noah  ;  "  there  is  none  better.  I  had  them  from 
the  hands  of  that  Bey  who  branded  us  as 
heathen,  and  so  fretted  the  friend  of  Henry 
Clay.  And  since,  in  a  pastime  such  as  we  go 
about,  a  fullest  confidence  in  one's  weapon  is 
important,  you  will  prefer  these  for  me  if  the 
choice  be  given  you."  This  was  spoken  to  me. 

Rivera  knelt  down,  and  taking  off  his  pa- 
tron's shoes,  replaced  them  with  light  fencing 
slippers,  whereof  the  soles  crackled  with  a 
fresh  coat  of  resin.  Then  came  loose  overshoes, 
meant  to  protect  the  others  on  the  road  to  Gads- 
by's  from  intervening  mud.  Having  done  this, 
and  saying  not  a  word  whether  of  question  or 
remark,  the  boy  stood  back  as  waiting  the  next 
command.  I  was  ever  reckoned  a  judge  of 
anything  on  two  legs  or  four,  as  became  the 
best  quartermaster  the  General  ever  had,  and 
123 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

I've  yet  to  glimpse  so  perfect — so  splendidly,  so 
accurately  perfect — an  example  of  the  physical 
man  as  showed  in  this  youth,  with  his  brown 
hair,  brown  eyes,  dark  skin,  and  round  thick 
neck  like  the  carved  column  of  some  sculptor. 

It  was  time  to  be  off  for  Gadsby's,  no 
mighty  journey,  being  just  across  the  street. 
As  we  were  about  departing,  Noah  called  to 
Rivera,  who  exhibited  no  more  distrust  of  a 
finale  than  was  present  with  the  other,  and  ob- 
served :  "I  shall  be  hungry  on  my  return. 
Have  a  fowl  and  a  flask  of  wine  set  out  for 
me  in  my  own  rooms." 

Rivera  bowed  as  one  who  understands ; 
and  giving  me  the  cloak  to  be  still  a  refuge  for 
the  Toledoes,  watched  us,  as  by  a  side  door 
we  got  onto  the  walk  and  headed  for  Gadsby's 
over  the  way. 

There  were  the  four  of  us,  Noah,  Kendall, 
Hill,  and  myself,  when  we  came  into  that  great 
room  of  Gadsby's  which  was  reserved  for  routs 
and  dancing.  It  was  a  large  and  lofty  room 
with  a  gallery  all  about.  We  had  the  place  to 
ourselves  for  the  moment ;  Pigeon-breast  and 
his  principal  were  yet  to  arrive  upon  the  scene. 

Noah  kicked  off  the  overshoes,  and  stepped 
and    scrubbed  his  feet    against    the    flooring 
boards.     The  experiment  ended  to  his  taste. 
124 


THE  JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

"  The  resin  holds,"  he  remarked.  Then^ 
glancing  about  the  vast  apartment,  he  came 
back  to  me  with  a  smile :  "It's  like  fighting 
in  a  10-acre  field,"  said  he. 

Pigeon-breast  appeared  by  a  far  door. 
Besides  his  bully  principal,  there  were  two 
others,  for  I  had  named  the  propriety  of  wit- 
nesses and  suggested  the  number.  I  crossed 
over  and  greeted  Pigeon-breast,  and  then  led 
him  aside. 

"  Is  either  of  the  gentlemen  with  you," 
said  I,  "  a  surgeon?" 

"Why,  no,"  returned  Pigeon-breast,  "the 
thing  clean  slipped  my  mind." 

"It  might  be  well  to  send,  then,"  I  said, 
"  for  I  think  he  will  be  wanted." 

Pigeon-breast  spoke  to  the  others,  who, 
with  Catron  between  them,  had  continued  near 
the  door.  Pigeon-breast,  after  a  word,  re- 
turned to  me. 

"  There  is  a  surgeon  below,"  he  reported  ; 
"  he  will  be  with  us  like  winking,  for  he  loves 
this  kind  of  thing." 

"And  now  the  swords,"  I  said.  "We 
may  as  well  transact  preliminaries  as  far  as  we 
can  go  while  waiting." 

Pigeon-breast  suggested  we  spin  a  coin, 
their  weapons  or  ours.  It  fell  for  ours  ;  a  good 
omen,  I  thought,  albeit  a  look  at  Noah,  where 
125 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

he  gazed  carelessly  from  a  window,  face  im- 
movable as  granite,  gave  encouragement  enough 
to  declare  war  for  a  crown.  I  went  over  to 
tell  him  we  had  won  the  use  of  our  Toledoes. 

"That  sounds  well,"  he  said.  "I  like 
good  tools,  especially  when  the  work  demanded 
leans  upon  the  fine." 

"  You  will  not  slay  the  man  ?"  I  asked. 

"  For  the  one  matter  of  his  life,"  returned 
Noah,  u  he's  as  safe  as  though  this  dancing 
room  were  a  church.  Beyond  that,  however, 
I  shall  take  such  measures  with  him  that,  for 
months,  who  sees  him  shall  know  what  reward 
is  waiting  on  cowards  who  vilify  a  pure  girl." 

Pigeon-breast  signaled  for  a  word.  Taking 
me  to  a  remote  corner,  he  argued  that  our 
duties  required  we  discuss  the  possibility  of 
apology. 

"  They  must  fight  a  little  first,"  I  retorted. 
"  There  is  no  room  between  epithets  such  as 
1  rogue  '  and  '  liar '  to  squeeze  in  an  explana- 
tion. These  folk  must  fight  while  both  can 
hold  out  swords." 

This  was  not  butcher's  taste ;  but  I  began 
to  see.  with  Noah,  that  the  mouths  against  us 
must  be  silenced, — at  least  the  men.  We  would 
begin  with  Catron;  we  would  duel  our  way 
through  the  social  register,  if  need  beckoned, 
to  purchase  that. justice  of  silence  for  our  Peg. 
126 


THE   JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

Poor  Peg !  she  was  not  to  lie  helpless  in  every 
cur's  mouth,  to  be  torn  at  as  most  pleased  his 
cruelty  or  best  fattened  his  interest.  The  more 
the  situation  ran  before  me,  the  more  my 
breast  took  fire ;  I  sustained  a  strict  face,  how- 
ever, engaged  as  I  was  upon  the  parade  ground 
of  honor  and  in  the  service  of  a  gentleman. 
Still,  I  said  enough,  and  said  it  in  such  fashion 
that  Pigeon-breast,  now  a  little  nervous  when 
the  actual  steel  was  about  to  be  drawn,  saw 
nothing  for  it  but  to  bring  forward  his  fellow. 
This,  I  admit,  he  managed  in  a  genteel  way ; 
nor  did  Catron  either  whiten  or  lag  backward, 
but  stepped  to  his  place  as  might  he  who  is 
warm  for  vengeance.  I  did  not  like  this  Ca- 
tron's  looks ;  surely  the  creature  was  a  black- 
guard with  no  right  to  name  himself  among 
gentlefolk,  only  so  far  as  one  might  lie  within 
the  accident  of  decent  birth.  But  he  seemed 
stout  enough  of  kidney,  though  that  may  have 
grown  with  a  belief  in  his  infallible  craft  of  the 
sword. 

We  gave  our  men  their  arms ;  and  as, 
stripped  to  their  shirts,  they  stood  apart,  await- 
ing signal  to  engage,  Noah  put  point  to  floor, 
and  bearing  hard  upon  the  hilt,  bent  his  blade 
double.  Abruptly  lifting  his  hand,  the  honest 
steel  sprang  straight,  and  the  sword  was  tossed 
high  in  the  air.  As  it  fell,  with  the  clear, 

127 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

sureness  of  legerdemain,  Noah  caught  it  by  the 
hilt.  It  was  no  more  than  a  flourish  of  the 
fencing  school,  perhaps ;  but  it  served  to 
hearten  me  mightily  and  to  put  me  confident 
of  victory.  Neither  was  it  wanting  in  effect,  I 
may  suppose,  on  the  volatile  Pigeon-breast  and 
his  man,  Catron;  I  thought  on  their  side  it 
made  somewhat  for  a  certain  seriousness  of 
face. 

Speaking  now  of  the  battle,  I  must  warn 
you  of  my  inability  to  tell  the  tale  in  nice  and 
hair-line  strokes.  It  was  a  notable  fight,  valor- 
ously  sustained  and  fairly  made  ;  but  indubita- 
bly it  did  not  remain  in  one  like  myself — 
wholly  ignorant  of  that  fencing  which  pushes  or 
stabs,  and  admirable  with  a  saber  no  farther 
than  striking  a  downright  blow  with  the  edge — 
to  catch  close  work  ,and  taste  the  merit  of  it. 
I  have  no  more  of  fencing  than  of  Sanscrit,  and 
remember  no  work,  of  my  own  of  that  char- 
acter beyond  splitting  an  Indian's  head  like  a 
pumpkin  in  a  skirmish  on  the  Tombigbee.  I 
am  strong  of  arm,  and  having  the  day  before 
come  across  the  long  hair  of  seven  white  women, 
murdered  at  Fort  Mimms,  smoke-drying  in  the 
wigwams  of  a  Creek  village  we  sacked,  I  doubt- 
less smote  upon  that  savage  with  uncommon 
violence. 

128 


THE   JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

When  the  pair  engaged,  there  were  pre- 
liminary moments  employed  in  feeling  one  an- 
other's strength.  The  swords  kept  up  an 
incessant  thin  rasping,  with  an  occasional  sing- 
ing note  as  they  parted  company  for  thrust  or 
parry.  Even  my  uneducated  vision  observed 
from  the  commencement  how  Noah  held  the 
better  of  it.  His  address  was  superior  ;  and  I 
should  say  that,  with  a  stiffer  wrist,  he  was 
withal  the  more  falcon-like  in  assault,  and  read- 
ier of  recovery. 

Catron,  by  his  brow  of  fury,  meant  death 
if  he  might  only  clothe  his  point  for  it.  That 
was  not  to  be.  On  the  heels  of  a  desperate 
stroke — it  was  fellow  to  a  dozen  that  preceded 
it — which  Noah  foiled  with  blade  describing  a 
circle  no  bigger  than  a  curtain-ring,  Catron's 
flushed  cheek  faded  to  ghastly  gray.  For  the 
moment  I  thought  him  touched  ;  but  no,  it  was 
but  the  sudden  daunting  conviction  that  he  had 
met  his  master.  This,  breaking  on  him  like 
the  boom  of  a  death-bell,  and  how  his  life  stood 
now  naked  before  one  whom  he  had  so  pro- 
voked, ate  the  yolk  from  his  courage  like  a 
weasel. 

Catron  foresaw  his  downfall  before  we 
who  looked  on  might  tell.  And  if  I  am  to  un- 
derstand a  gray,  drawn  face,  then  the  news 
taught  him  the  bitterness  of  death  itself. 

129 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

In  the  opening  exchanges,  Catron  attacked. 
He  was  in  and  out  with  a  hateful  ferocity, 
thrusting  and  pressing,  as  one  whose  merest 
wish  is  murder.  Noah  gave  backward  not  at 
all,  but  stood  like  a  wall,  risking  all  on  eye  and 
wrist.  I  could  not  catch  the  sleight  of  it,  but 
again  and  again,  as  Catron  thrust,  I  could  see  the 
lead-colored  blade  glimmer  by  Noah's  side  with 
not  an  open  inch  to  give  away.  As  Noah  told 
me  later,  however,  an  inch  in  fencing  is  a  wide 
margin. 

Catron  felt  his  strength  slip  from  him;  it 
was  like  the  sands  running  from  an  hour-glass. 
But  the  rogue's  heart  summoned  stoutness. 
Finding  himself  going,  Catron  must  crowd  the 
strife  to  an  end  before  it  ended  him.  He  leaped 
back  to  get  his  distance ;  then  without  pause, 
and  giving  a  sort  of  bellowing,  roaring  cry  that 
may  have  been  a  scheme  for  terror,  he  sprang 
forward,  sending  on  his  point  as  straight  as  the 
stroke  of  a  serpent. 

What  befell  was  like  the  lightning's  flash ; 
and  no  man's  gaze,  however  trained  to  the  trick 
of  it,  might  follow.  Noah  did  not  parry,  but 
stood  aside  from  the  other's  point,  which,  pass- 
ing, grazed  his  garments.  Noah's  point,  in  re- 
tort, entered  Catron's  sword  arm  just  above 
the  guard.  I  saw  Noah  hold  his  own  hand  high, 
and  with  point  a  bit  lowered.  From  the  sheer 
130 


THE   JEW   AND   His    SPANISH    SWORD 

forward  plunge  of  the  other,  Noah  ripped  up 
his  foe's  arm — split  it  like  a  mackerel ! — from 
wrist  to  shoulder.  It  was  a  gaping  furrow  of  a 
wound  ;  and  the  horrid  shock  of  it,  when 
Noah's  steel  caught  in  the  shoulder  bones, 
brought  the  wretched  Catron  to  the  floor.  The 
blood  ran  away  in  a  crimson  rivulet  from  the 
prostrate  one  ;  and  to  tell  the  best  and  the  worst 
of  me,  I've  yet  to  look  on  blood,  or  anything 
besides,  which  brought  me  so  much  of  comfort 
and  of  the  sweetness  of  peace. 

While  the  surgeon,  needle  and  lint  going, 
dealt  with  Catron,  I  conveyed  Noah  to  the  end 
of  the  room.  We  must  await  the  report  of 
yon  fellow's  condition ;  we  could  not  leave  the 
field  without  consent  of  Pigeon-breast — quite 
pale  and  stricken  now,  was  Pigeon-breast,  as  he 
stood  watching  while  the  bandages  were  wound. 

Following  a  nod  of  the  surgeon's,  Pigeon- 
breast  came  towards  me.  I  met  him  on  his 
way. 

"  The  thing  is  ended,"  said  Pigeon-breast; 
his  voice  came  huskily,  and  in  a  fashion  faint. 
"  The  thing  is  at  an  end.  My  friend  can  not 
hold  sword." 

"  That  is  enough,"  said  I. 

"  One  word,  sir,"  said  Noah,  coming  for- 
ward, handkerchief  all  red  where  he  had  been 
cleaning  his  blade ;  "  you  are  to  take  notice  :  I 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

from  this  day  shall  seek  out  with  challenge  each 
man  who  speaks  evil  of  Mrs.  Eaton.  That 
creature  who  lies  there,  and  whom,  maugre  his 
wound,  I  still  contemn  for  the  rogue  and  fetch- 
dog  of  Henry  Clay  I  painted  him,  may  be  for 
warning." 

"  But  has  Mrs.  Eaton  no  husband  to  fight 
for  her  ?"  sputtered  Pigeon-breast,  not  relish- 
ing Noah's  attitude. 

"  Let  that  go  by,"  retorted  Noah,  sternly. 
"  Your  diplomacy  shall  not  reach.  Again  I  tell 
you,  he  who  shall  assail  Mrs.  Eaton  with  word 
or  look,  or  who  fails  to  please  that  lady  with  his 
conduct,  replies  to  me.  I  wounded  this  one ; 
I  shall  slay  the  next." 

"What  is  this  to  be?"  cried  Pigeon-breast, 
appealing  to  me  in  a  flutter  of  spiteful  fright. 
"Is  it  that  we  have  a  bravo?" 

"  A  bravo  whom  you  are  like  to  encounter, 
sir,"  I  said,  "unless  you  teach  your  tongue 
some  prudence — you  and  your  tribe." 

"  Sir,  I  would  refuse  to  meet  a  bravo." 

"  Sir,  you  would  meet  the  bravo  or  meet 
me."  Then  came  a  rush  of  temper  about  my 
heart.  I  thought  on  poor  Peg;  and  a  great 
anger  began  to  flame  in  me.  I  glowered  on 
the  tinsel  Pigeon-breast;  then  I  thrust  to- 
wards him  my  huge  bear-paw  hands.  Pigeon- 
breast  considered  them,  and  the  hairy  wrists 
132 


THE  JEW  AND  His   SPANISH  SWORD 

like  pistons,  with  a  kind  of  interest  of  dismay. 
"Sir,"  said  I,  "the  first  foul  dog  among  you 
who  shall  so  much  as  take  the  name  of  that  in- 
nocent one  upon  his  lips,  I'll  find  him  out,  and 
with  the  ruth  one  grants  to  rattlesnakes,  I'll 
kill  him  with  these  fingers." 

And  so  ended  that  blood  letting  which 
was  meant  to  tie  the  tongue  of  slander  and  in 
a  measure  did. 

"  I  shall  leave  it  to  you,"  observed  Noah 
as  we  came  away,  "  to  place  this  affair  before  the 
President  in  a  right  light.  His  is  the  only 
judgment  whose  favor  I  would  seek,  and  that, 
particularly,  for  that  his  name  is  certain  to 
figure  in  the  story  of  this  bicker  whenever  it 
is  told.  I  would  not  have  him  think  I  had 
rashly  put  him  in  peril  of  criticism." 

"  There  should  be  no  alarm  on  that  score," 
I  replied.  "  My  word  for  it,  the  General  will 
endorse  with  his  full  name  every  step  we  have 
taken." 

On  our  return  to  the  Indian  Queen  we 
found  Rivera  waiting,  and  a  table  spread  in 
Noah's  apartment  as  he  had  commanded.  Ri- 
vera received  the  Spanish  swords,  still  wrapped 
in  the  concealing  cloak.  He  drew  forth  of  its 
scabbard  the  blade  which  had  armed  Noah's 
hand  ;  it  still  carried  a  stain  or  two  of  that 
Catron's  blood,  and  Rivera's  eye  seemed  to 

'33 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

fire  with  a  sleepy  satisfaction  while  he  looked 
on  it.  Then  he  turned  his  gaze  on  his  patron 
in  a  manner  of  inquiry. 

"  No,  he  will  live,"  said  Noah,  as  though 
in  reply  to  a  query  put  by  his  protege  ;  "  it  was 
not  to  kill  him  that  we  went  across  the  way." 

At  this  news,  Rivera  took  the  Spanish 
swords  and  withdrew;  and  all  with  the  evident 
purpose  of  putting  them  in  order  against  a 
next  campaign. 

"  I  think,"  said  I,  as  Noah  drew  up  to  the 
table — for  it  would  seem  that  his  work  had 
given  his  appetite  an  edge,  not  dulled  it — "I 
think  I  shall  hunt  up  our  friend  the  General. 
There  is  slight  chance  of  any  being  before  me ; 
and  yet  I  would  make  sure  to  bring  him  the 
earliest  word  of  what  has  chanced." 

Both  Hill  and  Kendall  would  be  for  leav- 
ing, also,  and  as  we  three  arose  to  go  Noah 
filled  a  quartet  of  glasses  with  Burgundy. 
Offering  one  to  each,  he  said:  "Let  us  drink 
to  the  defeat,  ay !  even  to  the  death  of  ones 
who  would  bear  false  witness  against  the  inno- 
cent. May  their  best  fate  be  no  better  than 
the  fate  of  him  whom  we  met  to-day." 


'34 


CHAPTER  V 

REVEREND    CAMPBELL  AND   THE   MAGPIE 

It  was  as  good  as  a  study  of  character, 
the  varying  fashions  wherein  those  interested 
received  the  story  of  Noah's  clash  with  Catron. 
There  was  nothing  told  of  it  in  the  paper,  for 
the  port  wine  Duff  was  wise  withal,  and  sup- 
pressed whatever  of  hunger  may  have  pos- 
sessed him  to  print  a  palatable  piece  of  news. 
The  General  might  not  approve  such  type- 
freedoms  ;  Eaton  would  doubtless  distaste  a 
notoriety  of  this  hue  for  Peg ;  indeed,  there 
might  be  others  of  consequence  whom  it  would 
disturb.  The  port  wine  Duff  carried  a  gulping 
appetite  for  public  printing ;  it  might  befall 
that  to  offend  would  get  between  the  legs  of 
his  anticipations  and  trip  them  up.  Where- 
fore, neither  Noah,  Catron,  Pigeon-breast,  nor 
myself,  was  granted  the  contemplation  of  his 
valor  by  the  pleasing  light  of  ink.  I,  myself, 
did  not  consider  this  a  deprivation;  nor  did 
Noah;  nor  Catron,  so  far  as  one  might  hear. 
But  the  chagrined  Pigeon-breast  bewailed  it. 
He  was  quite  crestfallen,  and  among  intimates 
'35 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

talked  of  the  call  for  a  court  journal  which 
should,  like  a  similar  imprint  of  St.  James, 
delicately  set  forth  the  surprising  deeds  of  our 
nobility. 

It  was  I  who  gave  the  tale  of  that  ball- 
room fight  at  Gadsby's  to  the  General.  He 
took  it  coolly;  granted  it,  in  sooth,  a  more 
quiet  reception  than  I  had  hoped.  The  fair 
truth  is,  I  was  prepared  for  an  explosion.  I 
was  pleasantly  fooled ;  the  General  could  not 
have  displayed  less  temper  had  I  related  the 
breaking  of  a  horse.  And  yet  he  made  claim 
for  slimmest  detail;  question  after  question 
on  his  part  prolonged  narration  for  an  hour. 

"  It  was  the  best  that  could  be,"  said  the 
General,  revolving  the  tangle  in  his  mind. 
"The  great  thing  is  to  stop  folk's  mouths; 
and  a  duel  well  fought,  and  with  the  right  in- 
dividual, is,  as  Noah  says,  the  way  to  construct 
such  condition.  I've  known  the  killing  in 
proper  form  of  one  man  to  remove  a  slander 
from  the  conversation  of  a  whole  county. 
Folk  let  it  fall  of  themselves  and  never  took  it 
up  again." 

"This  Catron,"  said  I,  "was  a  noted 
fighter  and  had  been  out  before." 

"Which  is  precisely,"  responded  the  Gen- 
eral, "  what  makes  the  work  worth  while.  Here 
was  a  berserk,  celebrated  as  one  most  froth- 
136 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

ingly  prompt  for  blood.  Now  he  is  disposed 
of,  it  will  tame  your  minor  war-hawks.  They'll 
not  be  half  so  ready ;  they  may  even  surprise 
themselves  with  what  they  will  hereafter  for- 
bear in  favor  of  keeping  the  peace." 

Eaton,  strange  to  tell,  was  moved  of  anger 
against  Peg's  champion. 

"  Sir,"  said  Eaton,  bearing  himself  stiffly 
to  Noah,  "  it  is  far  to  the  wrong  side  of  the 
regular  that  you  should  defend  my  wife.  That 
is  my  privilege,  sir;  it  does  not  rest  with 
others." 

"  And  that  is  true,"  returned  Noah,  po- 
litely ;  "  but  the  situation  was  unusual.  It  was 
of  crying  importance  to  get  the  thing  off  be- 
fore the  President  knew.  Folk  would 
criticise  him  sharply  if  he  did  not  interfere 
for  peace.  Besides,  had  you  been  brought  into 
the  business,  your  foes  would  have  torn  your 
prospects  to  pieces  with  it.  You  must  see,  sir, 
that  however  just  your  quarrel,  you  could  not 
ride  into  the  cabinet  on  the  back  of  a  duel." 

"  Sir,  I  can  better  be  out  of  a  cabinet," 
said  Eaton  grimly,  "  than  leave  my  honor  to 
the  swords  of  other  men." 

"  You  and  I,"  returned  Noah,  turning  dis- 
tant, "  disagree  extremely.  I  can  not  charge 
myself  with  wrong.  I  should  act  my  part  again 
were  occasion  to  rise.  You,  however,  are  the 

137 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

judge  of  your  own  injuries.  And  I  shall  be  in 
town  some  time." 

"  Sir,  I  am  glad  to  be  told  so,"  responded 
Eaton.  "  When  I  have  more  considered,  I  may 
send  a  word  to  you." 

This  wrong  discourse  I  was  ear-witness  of, 
but  in  it  bore  no  part.  I  was  so  stung  with 
anger  against  Eaton,  for  that  he  would  act  the 
boor,  and  talk  of  calling  folk  out  when  he 
should  be  thanking  them,  I  dared  not  trust 
myself  with  a  syllable.  I  would  have  spoken 
nothing  pleasant  for  Eaton,  and  that  would 
be  a  wide  flight  from  wise,  and  draw  his  horns 
my  way.  We  were  both  too  near  the  General 
to  talk  of  a  difference  that  would  have  broken 
everybody's  dish.  Moreover,  Noah  owned  the 
wit  and  the  wrist  to  very  well  care  for  his  own 
fortunes. 

"Why,  the  man  is  clean  beside  himself  1" 
exclaimed  the  General,  when  he  learned  of 
Eaton's  high  heels.  "  What  franchise  could  he 
pretend  to  for  a  quarrel  with  Noah?  Noah's 
right  to  fight  with  whom  he  will,  and  for  any 
reason  good  to  his  own  eyes  and  those  of  his 
adversary,  is  not  to  be  impeached.  Eaton  has 
surprised  me  out  of  bounds  !  For  myself,  I'd 
as  soon  think  of  stepping  between  a  man  and 
his  wife,  as  a  man  and  his  enemy.  Sir,  there 
are  relations  which  are  sacred  1  Eaton's  great 
138 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

love  for  Peg  has  blurred  him ;  a  husband  is 
ever  a  bad  judge  of  either  his  rights  or  his 
wrongs.  I'll  set  Eaton  to  the  properest  view 
in  this  when  we  meet." 

The  General  was  scandalized  in  the  face 
of  Eaton's  pose.  But  I  did  not  go  with  his 
theory  of  its  being  love  for  Peg.  It  was  off- 
spring rather  of  a  March-hare  vanity  that  re- 
sented a  good  office  for  which  it  lacked  the 
generosity  to  be  grateful. 

It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  General 
read  Eaton  a  right  lesson,  for  he  made  amends. 
He  came  blandly  to  Noah. 

"I  am  told,"  he  said,  "by  one  whose 
friendship  and  whose  judgment  I  never  doubt, 
that  I  have  behaved  badly  towards  you.  Per- 
mit me  to  offer  my  apologies.  Also,  I  am 
to  thank  you  for  your  service  against  that 
scoundrel." 

Noah  took  Eaton's  explanation  in  courtly 
spirit,  and  so  the  wrinkles  were  made  smooth. 
I  was  relieved,  though  not  pleased ;  I  would 
have  found  no  fault  with  Noah  had  he  gone  a 
ruder  course. 

"Where  is  this  Catron?"  asked  Noah. 

"As  to  that,"  replied  Eaton,  "I  think 
myself  qualified  to  answer.  I  sent  to  learn  his 
condition,  and  with  some  purpose,  so  soon  as 
he  was  able,  of  taking  him  up  where  you  let  go 

139 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

of  him.  The  word  came  back  that  he  had  quit 
the  town." 

It  was  Peg,  however,  who  minded  her 
debt  to  Noah.  She  went  to  him  with  wet  eyes, 
and,  without  word,  took  his  sword  hand  in 
both  of  hers  and  kissed  it.  Noah  started 
back. 

"That  is  too  much,"  he  cried.  "It  is  I 
who  will  be  now  in  arrears  to  you  for  the  bal- 
ance of  my  days." 

It  stood  the  day  but  one  following  the 
affair  of  Gadsby's,  and  I  was  comfortably  in 
my  own  room  engaged  about  my  letters.  If 
I  were  to  bide  with  the  General,  and  not  im- 
mediately to  see  Nashville,  then  I  must  name  a 
manager  and  put  my  plantations  in  some  kind 
of  command.  There  were  to  be  missives  from 
the  General,  also,  and  we  had  arranged  to  send 
them  west  on  the  next  day  by  hand  of  a 
special  express.  It  would  take  him  six  weeks, 
that  horseman  and  his  saddle-bags,  with  roads 
as  they  were,  to  win  to  Tennessee ;  we  were 
then  at  some  fever,  you  will  understand,  to 
have  our  mails  concluded  and  riding  on  their 
way. 

As  I  drove  my   quill  rapidly   across  the 

pages,  Jim  was  busy  in  the  adjoining  bedroom, 

giving    a    polish    to    my    boots.    Jim    cheered 

himself  over  his  labors  with  snatches  of  song. 

140 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

As  I  wrote  hard  at  my  desk,  I  could  hear  him, 
in  a  most  lugubrious  refrain: 

That's  a  word  to  be  uttered  to  d'rich  man  an'  his  pride; 
(Which  a  man  is  frequent  richest  when  it's  jest  befo'  he  died.) 
Thar's  a  word  to  be  uttered  to  d'hawg  a-eatin'  truck  ; 
(Which  a  hawg  is  frequent  fattest  when  it's  jest  befo'he's  stuck.) 

"  Cease  that  outlandish  howling,"  I  com- 
manded furiously. 

"Shore,  Marse  Major!"  said  Jim,  coming 
into  the  room  where  I  sat,  and  bringing  one  of 
my  high  horseman  boots  on  his  arm,  polishing 
it  the  while  with  unabated  ardor;  "shore, 
Marse  Major  I  An'  yet,  that's  a  mighty  well 
liked  song  up  an'  down  d'Cumberland.  Hit's 
been  made,  that  song  is,  by  Miss  Polly  Hines; 
little  Miss  Polly  who  lives  over  on  d'Tossom 
Trot.  She  makes  it  all  about  a  villyun  who 
comes  fo'closin'  'round  her  paw's  betterments 
for  what  he  owes  that  Dudleyville  bank,  an1 
sellin'  'em  off  at  public  vandoo.  Marse  Major, 
you-all  oughter  listen  to  d'res'  of  that  rounde- 
lay; if  you'd  only  hear  it  plumb  through,  Jim 
sort  o'  reckons  you'd  like  it." 

I  made  no  response,  but  kept  on  with  my 
work.  I  was  not  to  be  moved  of  ballads  as 
Jim  rendered  them,  even  though  vouched  to  be 
the  offput  of  that  Sappho  of  the  'Possom  Trot. 

Ten  minutes  went  racing  by  and  Jim  re- 
appeared in  the  door. 

141 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

"Say,  Marse  Major,  do  you-all  recollects 
that  gentleman  who  comes  pesterin'  about 
for  them  subscriptions,  an'  who  d'Marse 
Gen'ral  done  skeers  off  d'  time  you  an'  me 
is  goin'  down  to  d'parlor  to  meet  dish  yere 
Missis  Eaton?" 

"Well,  what  about  him?" 

"  He's  been  'round  ag'in  to-day.  It's  this 
mornin'  whiles  you  is  sleepin',  an'  I  runs  up  on 
him  outside  in  d'hall,  kind  o'  ha'ntin'  about 
our  door.  I  say :  '  What  you-all  want  ?'  He 
say:  'I  want  to  see  d'Marse  Major.'  With 
that  I  ups  an'  admonishes  him  that  you-all  is 
soun'  asleep.  '  An','  I  says,  '  it  don't  do  to  go 
keerlessly  wakin'  d'Marse  Major  up.  He's 
got  a  monstrous'high  temper,  that  a-way,  d' 
Marse  Major  has,  an'  all  you  has  to  do  is  rap 
on  that  door  jes'  once,  an' he'll  nacherallycome 
boilin'  outen  bed,  an'  be  down  on  you  like  a 
fallin'  star;  that's  what  he  will.'  Then  I  tells 
him  he  can't  get  no  subscriptions  from  you  no 
how ;  that  you  is  a  heap  sight  worse  than  d' 
Marse  Gen'ral 'bout 'em.  'You  hyar  me!'  I 
expostulates ;  'you-all  is  simply  barkin'  at  a 
knot ;  thar  aint  no  sign  of  a  raccoon  up  that 
tree  at  all.  You-all  might  jes'  as  well  try  to  get 
sugar-sap  outen  a  swamp-beech  as  subscriptions 
outen  d'Marse  Major  1'  Shore,  that's  what 
Jim  tell  'urn." 

142 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

"And  for  that,  you  miscreant,  I'll  give  him 
a  hundred  dollars  when  he  does  come,  to  show 
him  how  little  truth  you  tell." 

"  Don't  go  blazin' off  into  a  fandad,  Marse 
Major,"  said  Jim,  reprovingly,  "  throwin'  your 
money  away.  Dish  yere  gentleman  'spends  to 
Jim,  an'  allows  he  aint  aimin'  at  no  subscrip- 
tions. But  he  do  say  he  want  to  see  you ;  an' 
so  I  tell  him  to  be  back  ag'in  in  five  hours.  He's 
liable  to  come  buttin'  in  yere  any  minute  now, 
as  d'  time  Jim  sots  is  done  arriv'." 

As  if  for  endorsement,  a  knock  was  heard 
at  the  door. 

There  were  two  to  enter,  a  man  and  a 
woman.  The  man  was  huge  of  frame,  sham- 
bling, uncouth,  with  knobby  joints  and  large 
uncertain  feet;  his  face  flabby,  sickly,  with 
little  greedy,  shifty  eyes,  like  the  eyes  of  swine; 
gross  rnouth,  full  lipped  and  coarse,  and  work- 
ing and  munching  in  a  full-fed  way,  engaging 
itself  upon  imaginary  mouthfuls.  The  hands 
of  this  individual  were  puffy,  warty  members, 
with  palms  as  hot  and  wet  and  soft  as  an  August 
swamp,  and,  save  for  their  temperature,  much 
like  the  belly  of  a  toad  to  the  feel.  These 
hands  were  commonly  in  motion,  making  plau- 
sible and  deprecatory  gestures.  It  was  as 
though  the  world  were  a  cat  and  they  would 
stroke  its  back  by  way  of  conciliation.  Over 
»4J 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

all  was  obsequiousness  like  a  veil — my  visitor 
seemed  to  sweat  subserviency,  exhale  abasement 
as  an  atmosphere.  The  woman,  thin,  and  bird- 
faced,  and  with  beaky  nose  that  looked  as 
though  the  frost  had  pinched  the  neb,  was  of  the 
chattering,  empty,  magpie  flock;  she  appeared 
as  vulgar  as  the  man ;  albeit,  not  with  his  ob- 
sequiousness, since  she  affected  the  girlish,  and 
stood  ready  with  giggle  and  gurgle  and  arch 
look,  all  of  which  but  poorly  fitted  with  her 
sober  fifty  years.  From  an  odor  of  pulpits 
observable,  I  thought  him  a  preacher;  also,  I 
took  the  woman  to  be  his  wife. 

The  man — I  will  thus  far  defend  him — was 
not,  however,  that  subscription  person  whom 
Jim  remembered  with  the  General. 

"  Dish  yere's  d'gentleman  who  is  done 
been  teeterin'  'round  our  door  this  mornin'," 
said  Jim,  as  he  ushered  the  visitors. 

11  It  is  not  the  gentleman  who  called  on  the 
General,"  I  remarked. 

"  Well,  what's  d'diffrunce,  anyhow?"  asked 
Jim  with  mighty  unconcern.  "  He's  a  preacher, 
so  it's  all  d'same." 

"  No  difference,  perhaps,"  I  returned, 
"  except  to  make  plain  how  little  you  are  to  be 
relied  on." 

"I  s'ppose  Jim's  as  cap'bleof  mistakes  as 
anybody."  Here  Jim  lapsed  into  the  abused 
,44 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

tone  of  one  virtuous,  and  driven  to  the  desper- 
ate by  ill-usage.  "  But  I  tells  you-all,  Marse 
Major;  since  you  done  locks  up  that  demijohn, 
Jim  aint  been  d'same  niggah.  His  mem'ry 
has  sort  o'  begun  to  bog  down.  No  wonder 
Jim  gets  folks  swapped  'round  foolish  in  his 
mind." 

While  these  reproofs  were  going,  my  call- 
ers stood  by  the  door,  inviting  consideration 
with  much  bending  of  the  body  and  bowing  of 
the  head. 

"  I  am  the  Reverend  Campbell,"  began  the 
man;  "I  am  pastor  of  a  precious  flock  in  this 
town.  And  this  is  Deborah,  my  beloved  con- 
sort. I  trust  I  find  all  well  and  holy  here,  and 
the  blessing  of  the  Spirit  upon  this  place?" 

Then  the  Reverend  Campbell  re-began  his 
abject  bowing,  while  his  magpie  wife  smirked 
and  giggled  sociably. 

It  had  been  long  since  I  met  folk  who 
more  repelled  me.  For  the  sake  of  his  cloth, 
however,  and  the  real  respect  I  bore  it,  I 
required  myself  to  assume  a  manner  of  cordi- 
ality. I  asked  the  purpose  of  the  visit. 

"  It  was  my  privilege,"  responded  the 
Reverend  Campbell,  with  a  meeting-house 
snuffle  that  certain  divines  adopt  as  a  profes- 
sional manner  of  articulation,  "  I  may  say  it 
was  my  inestimable  privilege  some  years  back, 

HS 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

to  behold  in  the  body  of  the  church,  dur- 
ing many  of  my  preachments,  that  mighty  man 
of  war,  our  coming  president,  and  his  sweet 
lady ;  although  she — for  flesh  is  as  grass — has 
since  perished  and  passed  over  to  dwell  among 
the  blest." 

11  Mrs.  Jackson  was  my  nearest,  dearest 
friend,"  simpered  the  awful  magpie  wife,  inter- 
rupting. "  It  was  when  General  Jackson  had  a 
seat  in  the  senate.  We  were  like  loving  sisters, 
Mrs.  Jackson  and  I." 

This  last  I  distrusted,  but  I  did  not  say  so. 

"You  are  the  General's  old  preacher?" 
I  said;  the  Reverend  Campbell  meanwhile  see- 
sawing and  bowing,  and  locking  and  unlocking 
his  warty  fingers.  "  Have  you  been  in  to  meet 
the  General?" 

"  Not  yet,  good  sir,  not  yet,"  replied  the 
Reverend  Campbell.  "That  shall  be  in  good 
time.  Since  you  abide  on  terms  of  intimacy 
with  our  coming  president,  I  deemed  it  prudent 
to  first  make  myself  known  to  you.  Knowing 
David,  I  would  know  Jonathan.  There  is  a 
business — a  piece  of  sinful,  worldly  business — I 
would  inquire  of,  a  boon  I  would  ask,  and  ere 
I  went  to  the  transaction  thereof,  I  held  it 
sapient  to  call  upon  you  who  will  be  so  strong 
to  bind  or  loose — so  potent,  as  one  might  say, 
in  the  coming  dispensation  of  preferments." 

146 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

The  Reverend  Campbell — who  should  have 
been  a  mandarin  for  his  repulsiveness  and  talents 
to  bow — kept  up  his  bending,  while  the  magpie 
wife  in  vacuous  vanity,  beamed  on  like  a  tar- 
nished sun.  To  put  a  stop  to  the  bowing, 
which  began  to  grow  on  me  nervously,  I  bade 
the  pair  be  seated.  They  would  remain  the 
longer,  but  I  would  save  myself  with  less  of 
irritation. 

"  I  do  not  come  for  myself,"  observed  the 
Reverend  Campbell,  snuffling,  and  balancing 
uneasily  on  his  chair's  edge.  His  wife  had  taken 
her  seat  with  more  of  confidence ;  spreading 
her  skirts  to  advantage,  and  leaning  back  as 
one  certain  of  results.  "  No,  it  is  by  request 
of  a  beloved  brother  in  Christ,  the  Reverend 
Doctor  Ely  of  Philadelphia.  Our  great  Chief 
Magistrate  knows  him  and  loves  him  well." 

Then  the  Reverend  Campbell  went  on  in 
pulpit  tones  to  elaborate  his  mission.  It  soon 
declared  itself  to  be  the  old  Duff  Green  errand 
of  office  angling.  Also,  it  was  a  coincidence 
something  strange,  I  thought,  when  the  Rev- 
erend Campbell,  following  in  the  very  foot- 
prints of  the  wine  colored  Duff,  spoke  of  the 
Florida  Governorship,  and  named  the  same 
wealthy  zany  for  its  occupation. 

"  He  is  a  Pennsylvania  Westfall,"  concluded 
the  Reverend  Campbell,  his  breath  bated  and 
147 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

his  air  impressed,  "  he  is  a  Pennsylvania  West- 
fall,  and  extremely  rich  of  this  world's  goods. 
Doctor  Ely  desires  this  post  for  him  with  all  his 
heart ;  he  believes,  moreover,  that  his  old  friend, 
our  excellent  president,  who — and  heaven  be 
thanked  ! — is  less  than  a  scant  two  weeks  away 
from  his  inauguration,  will  be  glad  to  pleasure 
him  in  this  regard.  You  might,  sir,  hint  to 
that  eminent  statesman  and  soldier  how  his 
friend,  Doctor  Ely,  would  profit  by  this  selec- 
tion, going,  as  in  that  event  he  will,  to  St. 
Augustine,  to  be  chaplan  for  the  then  Gover- 
nor Westfall." 

"  And  my  husband,  too,  would  be  called 
to  Dr.  Ely's  place  in  Philadelphia,"  gurgled 
the  magpie  wife ;  "  it's  a  much  richer  church 
than  the  one  here." 

There,  then,  was  the  cat  out  of  the  bag ;  I 
had  been  guessing  for  some  moments  in  the 
dark,  as  to  why  the  Reverend  Campbell  should 
so  zealously  be  fishing  for  office  when  he 
ought  to  be  fishing  for  souls.  The  magpie 
wife  granted  me  a  glint  of  his  secret.  It  did 
not  swell  my  fund  of  respect  for  the  Reverend 
Campbell,  a  fund  nothing  rotund  as  things 
stood. 

"  You  should  see  the  General,"  I  said  at 
last.  "These  are  not  my  affairs;  I  would  not 
presume,  wanting  his  invitation,  to  advise  with 
148 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

him  concerning  them.  You  should  see  him; 
or,  if  you  will,  you  might  wait  until  Van  Buren 
arrives." 

"Ah,  yes;  the  coming  Secretary  of  State," 
remarked  the  Reverend  Campbell,  while  his 
thick  lips  munched  unpleasantly.  "Will  Mr. 
Van  Buren  make  the  Florida  selection?" 

I  was  driven  to  say  I  thought  not ;  the 
General  himself  had  been  once  Governor  of 
Florida ;  therefore,  he  might  believe  he  was 
the  one  better  qualified  to  make  such  appoint- 
ment. 

Beholding  the  Reverend  Campbell  in  the 
throes  of  doubt,  tipping  on  his  chair,  and 
looking  with  his  black  clothes  not  a  little  like 
a  crow  hesitating  on  a  fence-rail  as  to  whether 
or  no  he  will  plump  down  among  the  sprouting 
corn,  I  suggested, — to  relieve  myself,  I  fear — 
that  now  he  was  come,  he  might  better  go  in  to 
the  General  and  offer  his  request.  I  entertained 
no  thought  of  success  for  him ;  I  had  not  for- 
gotten the  fate  in  that  connection  of  the  pursy 
Duff — Duff  of  the  ripe,  ripe  nose.  But  I 
aimed  at  a  riddance  of  the  Reverend  Campbell 
and  his  leering,  bubbling  helpmeet ;  and  I  was 
not  so  loyal  to  the  General  as  to  prevent  me 
from  earning  my  own  release  by  betraying  him 
into  their  talons. 

"  Do  you  deem  it  the  part  of  sagacity," 
149 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

said  the  Reverend  Campbell,  following  a 
thoughtful  pause,  "  to  crave  this  boon  at 
once?" 

"Sagacious?  surely  I"  I  would  have  given 
my  word  for  anything  to  work  free  of  the 
Reverend  Campbell  and  that  magpie  wife,  the 
latter  gentlewoman  being  rusty  of  plume, 
strident,  and  of  but  a  sorry  favor  of  face ;  to 
say  nothing  about  her  gigglings  and  chuck- 
lings  ;  for  that  vacant  dame  was  like  a  parrot, 
with  a  running  rattle  of  vocalisms,  going  from 
gurgle  to  chirp,  as  an  accompaniment  to  what- 
ever was  said  by  her  lord  and  master. 

"Then  let  us  repair  to  him,"  said  the 
Reverend  Campbell,  raising  his  hands  as  if 
askmg  a  benediction  on  me  and  my  belong- 
ings j  "let  us  hie  to  him  and  unbosom  our- 
selves, and  may  we  find  him  in  grace  of  spirit 
and  well  of  this  mortal  body." 

We  discovered  the  General  in  his  rooms. 
We  found  him  in  a  rather  merry  spirit  for  him. 
He  was  sitting  by  his  fire,  with  Peg  on  a  foot- 
stool at  a  corner  of  the  fireplace. 

Hearing  of  the  General's  diet  of  rice, 
Peg's  mother — she  lived  over  to  the  south, 
across  that  wooded  strip,  the  Mall — holding 
herself  to  excel  in  certain  elixirs  and  cordials 
and  draughts  marvelous  for  maladies  stom- 
achic, had  sent  to  the  General's  relief  a  bottle 
150 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

of  medicine  warranted  of  transcendent  merit, 
and  in  which  dandelion  flourished  a  dominant 
element.  The  good  lady  would  trust  her  drugs 
to  none  save  Peg ;  there  she  was,  then,  the 
fairest  foot  and  hand  ever  to  be  sent  on 
porter's  work  or  to  run  an  errand  with  a  mes- 
sage. 

The  unexpected  sight  of  Peg  sent  over 
me  a  wave  of  pleasure.  I  love  the  beautiful, 
have  an  inborn  joy  of  it,  and  who  or  what 
could  be  more  lovely  than  our  Peg — Peg  with 
her  wildrose  face  ? 

The  General  glanced  up  through  the 
tobacco  smoke  wherewith  the  rooms  were 
cloudy.  Peg  had  said  she  loved  smoke,  and 
could  stand  to  it  like  a  side  of  bacon.  His 
look  was  of  half-recognition  as  it  settled  upon 
my  company. 

"The  Reverend  Campbell,  is  it  not?'1 
said  he. 

"The  same,  Mr.  President,"  returned  the 
other,  commencing  again  those  bowing  mo- 
tions which  had  so  tortured  my  soul,  his  flabby 
cheeks  the  while  exuding  a  beady  dew ;  "  the 
same.  And  here  is  Deborah,  my  well-beloved 
wife,  Mr.  President." 

The  magpie  one  of  rumpled  feather  gained 
indication  by  the  Reverend  Campbell  pointing 
to  her  with  a  bulbous  forefinger  that  was  some- 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

what  suffering  about  the  nail  for  lack  of  care. 
The  magpie  one  gave  the  usual  proof  of  her 
satisfaction  with  chirp  and  giggle. 

"  The  last  time  I  beheld  you,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent," said  the  Reverend  Campbell,  "you  and 
your  dear  wife  sat  beneath  my  words."  The 
General  flinched  as  though  a  rude  hand  touched 
a  wound.  He  gathered  himself,  however. 
11  That  dear  one,  Mr.  President,  has  gone 
from  our  midst.  It  is  a  chastening,  Mr.  Pres- 
ident. Whom  the  Lord  loveth,  He  chasteneth. 
It  is  a  loss,  Mr.  President,  but  we  must  sum- 
mon meekness  of  spirit.  Blessed  are  the  meek 
in  spirit,  saith  the  singer,  and  they  shall  inherit 
the  earth.  Mr.  President,  let  us  pray." 

The  Reverend  Campbell  rolled  forth  the 
foregoing,  and  never  halt  or  pause ;  with  the 
last  word  he  was  down  upon  his  knees,  ex- 
panding into  a  gale  of  prayer. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  pass  upon  such  sacred 
petitions,  but  the  Reverend  Campbell's  effort 
grated  on  my  conscience  as  crude,  and,  if  the 
term  be  not  improper,  vulgar.  The  General, 
who  was  still  in  his  chair,  bowed  head  in  hand 
and  sat  silent  throughout.  He  made  neither 
sign  nor  sound ;  and  yet  it  must  have  galled 
him  like  musketry,  that  prayer. 

It  was  when  the  Reverend  Campbell  stood 
again  on  his  feet,  and  the  magpie  one  had  re- 
152 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

arranged  her  feathers,  that  their  glances  took  in 
Peg  where  she  now  stood  near  the  fire.  She 
was  silent,  collected,  and  her  calm  look  rested 
upon  the  Reverend  Campbell  and  the  magpie 
one.  It  was  a  steady  glance  of  unseeing  indif- 
ference and  unacquaintance,  and  as  though  the 
pair  were  strangers  to  her. 

Their  actions,  however,  would  smack  of 
something  nearer.  No  sooner  did  they  behold 
Peg,  than  with  one  impulse  they  started  towards 
her,  faces  a  garden  of  smiles. 

"Why,  my  dear  Mrs.  Eaton  I"  cried  the 
magpie  one. 

"  My  dear,  recovered  lamb !"  exclaimed 
the  Reverend  Campbell. 

The  two  made  for  Peg  with  exuberant 
hands  extended.  Peg  waved  them  off. 

"You  make  a  mistake,"  said  Peg.  Her 
words  took  flight  evenly  and  with  nothing  of 
disturbance.  "  I  do  not  know  you."  Then, 
as  the  Reverend  Campbell  and  his  magpie  love 
seemed  but  half  checked :  "  And  I  will  not 
know  you." 

These  closing  words  were  vibrant  of  a 
nipping  vigor,  and  Peg's  leopard  teeth  came 
together  with  a  click,  and,  as  it  were,  for 
emphasis.  Peg  turned  to  me: 

"  Will  you  take  me  to  my  carriage  ?" 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

With  that,  the  General  arose  and  cava- 
liered  Peg  to  the  door. 

"  Give  my  thanks  to  your  good  mother, 
child,"  said  the  General,  his  fond  eye  pleasant 
with  the  reflection  of  Peg's  pretty  face;  "tell 
her  I  shall  profit  by  her  kindness.  I  feel  half 
restored  with  merely  having  the  Dandelion 
Water  on  my  shelf." 

Closing  the  door  after  us,  the  General  re- 
turned to  the  Reverend  Campbell  and  his 
magpie  love. 

"  There  is  no  story  with  it."  Peg  replied, 
when  I  put  those  queries  the  situation  sug- 
gested. "  They  are  folk  of  treachery ;  that  is 
it.  They  have  been  my  persecutors  as  much 
as  any.  And  with  more  shame  for  them,  since 
they  have  pretended  friendship  for  my  family, 
and  had  support  from  my  father  for  year  piled 
upon  year." 

"And  is  that  the  whole  of  it?"  I  asked. 

"  Truly,  it  is,  my  best  dear  friend."  Peg 
held  up  her  pansy  face,  and  offered  me  a  cheer- 
ful look  by  way  of  proof.  "  Nor  am  I  even  a 
trifle  provoked.  For  all  that,  I  would  not  per- 
mit them  because  they  found  me  with  the  good 
General,  and  with  you" — she  gave  my  arm  a 
little  pressure — "  and  doubtless  would  offer 
some  request,  to  put  on  a  false  face,  and  so 
use  me  for  their  interest.  I  owe  them  no  such 
'54 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

tenderness.  Besides,  since  I've  found  real 
friends," — Peg  crowded  to  my  side  more 
closely,  and  bent  upon  me  her  kind,  un- 
fathomed  eyes,  as  though  admitting  my  pro- 
tection,— "since  I've  found  real  friends,  I've 
no  room  in  my  heart  for  mocking  imitations." 
Peg  laughed  her  witch-laugh  now,  and  stepped 
on  more  quickly.  "  Don't  let  us  talk  of  them," 
she  said,  "  don't  let  us  talk  of  such  hollow 
folk!" 

Peg's  carnage  stood  at  the  curb.  Indeed, 
she  had  but  just  arrived  when,  as  I  piloted  the 
Reverend  Campbell  and  the  magpie,  I  found 
her  by  the  General's  fire. 

"  Some  day  you  must  go  with  me  to  meet 
my  mother,"  said  Peg ;  "  I've  promised  her." 
Then,  as  I  lifted  her  into  the  carriage,  "  Mercy! 
you  should  practice  for  a  lighter  hand.  I  feel 
as  one  in  the  paws  of  a  bear." 

With  a  wave  of  her  hand,  she  was  off  for 
the  President's  Square  where  her  home  stood ; 
I,  on  my  part,  turned  back  to  the  General, 
walking  slowly,  and  seeing  Peg's  gentle  eyes 
before  me  all  the  way  to  his  door.  Sweet  Peg  ! 
had  it  been  I,  no  tawdry  ambition  of  politics 
would  have  divided  my  heart  with  you  ;  you 
would  have  reigned  over  it  alone ;  we  would 
have  left  Washington  to  the  vermin  who  de- 

'55 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

voured  it,  and  made  our  kingdom  in  lands  of 
peace  and  truth ! 

It  was  not  without  relief  I  discovered  that 
the  Reverend  Campbell,  with  his  magpie  mate, 
was  gone. 

"  Assuredly,  no !"  exclaimed  the  General, 
when  I  inquired  whether  the  name  of  Doctor 
Ely,  and  the  petition  preferred  of  the  Reverend 
Campbell,  had  re-colored  his  thoughts  touch- 
ing St.  Augustine  and  the  Florida  Governor- 
ship; "  assuredly,  no  !  He  who  has  that  place 
from  me  must  be  emphatically  two  things — a 
man  and  a  friend.  The  creature,  Westfall,  is 
emphatically  neither.  I  can  not  guess,  how- 
ever, in  what  this  sudden  office-hunting 
excitement  of  our  ghostly  fathers  finds  its 
source.  I  asked  the  Reverend  Campbell,  was 
this  Westfall  known  to  him.  He  said,  only  by 
repute  ;  that  he  urged  the  case  at  the  request  of 
Doctor  Ely." 

Clearing  him  on  that  question  of  purpose, 
I  told  the  General  of  Doctor  Ely's  arrange- 
ment to  be  a  Governor's  chaplain  in  St.  Augus- 
tine; and  how,  in  a  moment  of  gurgling 
exaltation  concerning  what  might  be,  that  un- 
guarded magpie  exposed  the  scheme  of  "calling" 
our  Reverend  Campbell  to  Doctor  Ely's  fat 
present  pulpit,  should  it  become  vacant  in  favor 
of  palms  and  orange  groves. 
156 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

"And  in  that  way  runs  the  road!"  ex- 
claimed the  General,  full  of  leniency  and 
amusement.  "The  preachers  are  becoming 
better  politicians  every  day.  Major,  you  and  I 
must  look  to  our  lines,  or  some  dominie  may 
yet  turn  our  flanks." 

Then  I  gave  the  General  what  Peg  had 
told  of  her  attitude,  like  a  diminutive  iceberg, 
towards  the  Reverend  Campbell  and  his  mag- 
pie partner. 

"  They  have  done  Peg  no  actual  harm,"  I 
said.  "  They  passed  her  by  one  day,  like  the 
Levites  they  were  and  are ;  and  now  she  re- 
venges herself." 

"  One  can  always  hear  the  savage  stirring 
about  in  Peg,"  commented  the  General;  "and 
I  like  her  the  better  for  it.  I  love  your  re- 
vegeful  soul — he  who  has  a  long  knife,  a  long 
memory,  and  will  go  a  long  trail  to  his  feud." 

"And  that  is  an  excellent  observe,"  I  said, 
teasing  him  a  bit,  "  and  you  a  Christian  and  a 
president!" 

"The  observe,  as  you  phrase  it,"  retorted 
the  General,  "is  not  only  excellent  but  earnest. 
Revenge  is  the  fair  counterpart  of  gratitude. 
They  are  off  the  same  bolt  of  cloth.  Find  me 
a  soul  for  revenge,  and  I'll  find  you  a  soul  to 
be  grateful.  What  are  revenge  and  gratitude, 
'57 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

when  one  goes  to  the  final  word,  but  just  a  man 
paying  his  debts  ?" 

"Who  is  this  Doctor  Ely?"  I  asked.  "The 
Reverend  Campbell  described  him  as  your 
friend." 

"  Doctor  Ely  is  no  more  than  an  acquaint- 
ance, and  hardly  that.  I  met  him  years  ago  in 
Philadelphia  ;  and  I've  heard  him  preach.  He 
is  a  showy,  fashionable  figure  of  man  ;  not  deep, 
yet  musical  and  fluent.  The  women,  I  remem- 
ber, liked  his  discourses  right  well.  There  were 
a  beat  and  a  march  to  his  periods  ;  and  albeit, 
while  he  talked,  the  wise  ones  went  to  sleep, 
others  with  music-boxes  for  minds,  and  who 
mistook  sensation  for  sense,  sat  bolt  upright, 
feeling  the  liveliest  delight." 

"  I've  met  the  latter  sort,"  I  assented;  "the 
gentry  who  prefer  rhyme  to  reason." 

"Somehow,"  observed  the  General,  follow- 
ing an  interval  of  silence,  "  I  ever  fear  I'll  be 
unfair  to  your  preachers.  My  inclination  is  to 
judge  them  too  harshly — estimate  them  below 
their  worth.  It  has  been  ever  the  fault  of 
military  men  to  do  this,  and,  for  myself,  I 
would  guard  against  it." 

"  And  now  will  you  explain  what  you  are 
talking  about?"  I  was  in  cold  earnest,  for  the 
General's  remorse  over  an  injustice  to  preach- 
ers was  clean  beyond  me  and  apropos  of  nothing. 
158 


REVEREND  CAMPBELL  AND  THE  MAGPIE 

My  own  thought  galloped  to  it — for  his  wife 
taught  him  that  softness,  being  as  devout  as  an 
abbess,  herself — that  for  the  dominies,  as  an 
order  or  trade  among  men,  he  carried  more  of 
charity  than  any  whom  I  knew.  More  by  far 
than  I  could  boast,  or  cared  to.  "  Why  do  you 
reproach  yourself  about  the  preachers?" 

"  It  was  this  Doctor  Ely,"  returned  the 
General,  "  of  whom  I  was  thinking.  I  was  re- 
membering certain  severities  of  judgment  to- 
wards him  long  ago.  I  heard  him  preach,  yet 
could  give  him  no  credit  for  sincerity.  He  im- 
pressed me  as  one  who  looked  often  in  the 
glass  and  seldom  from  the  window.  He  was 
friendly,  affable,  and,  I  think,  honest ;  and  yet 
I  liked  him  no  more  than  I  like  that  reverend 
cringer  who  was  just  now  here.  I  well  recall 
saying  to  this  Doctor  Ely — probably  I  had  him 
in  my  mind's  eye  at  the  time,  and  it  hurt  him, 
too — that  he  who  was  professionally  good  would 
never  be  very  good,  nor  he  who  was  excellent 
for  a  salary  offer  an  example  of  the  best  ex- 
cellence. It  may  be  that  my  natural  distrust  of 
preachers  is,  after  all,  nothing  save  my  natural 
fear  of  them.  You  have  not  forgotten  how  I 
told  you  I  feared  men  of  peace.  That  is  true ; 
I  fear  folk  who  profess  peace  as  a  principle — 
your  Quaker  and  your  preacher — as  I  fear  and 

159 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

fall  back  before  the  inhuman,  or  as  children 
fear  a  ghost.  It  is  all  to  be  accounted  for 
perhaps,  in  the  differing  natures  of  folk.  One 
man  has  a  genius  for  peaceful  while  another's 
bent  is  for  war,  and  each  will  misunderstand 
the  other's  motives.  There  can  be  little  in 
common  and  less  of  trust  between  them,  since 
they  will  live  as  far  apart  as  black  and  white. 
It  is,  I  say,  quite  natural — war  and  peace — wolf 
and  sheep.  I've  no  doubt,  now,"  concluded 
the  General,  a  smile  beginning  to  show,  "  that 
to  your  wolf  on  the  hill,  your  grazing  sheep 
down  in  the  valley  is  a  mighty  suspicious  char- 
acter." 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    STORM   GATHERS   AGAINST   PEG 

Those  next  few  weeks  went  by  in  a '  tum- 
bling procession  that  was  more  like  mob  violence 
than  aught  orderly  or  sequential.  The  town 
was  overrun  of  folk.  It  was  a  climbing  case  of 
everybody  under  foot — everybody  stepped  on 
one,  and,  in  compensation,  one  stepped  on 
everybody. 

Jim  was  driven  to  remark  concerning  the 
collecting  tangle  of  humanity,  and  the  crush 
and  crowd  and  jostle  of  it.  The  sage  Jim  was 
speaking  to  his  own  defence,  being  indicted 
for  some  neglect  of  me. 

"  'Pears  like,  Marse  Major,"  said  Jim, 
soothingly,  "  you-all  must  jes'  wrastle  along 
somehow  until  dish  yere  pop'lace  begins  to 
abrogate.  I'm  doin'  d'  bes'  I  knows  how;  but 
she  shorely  is  a  time  for  every  'possum  to  learn 
to  hang  by  his  own  tail." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  '  abrogate  ?' '  I 
was  willing  to  be  amused  at  the  expense  of  the 
erroneous  Jim. 

"You  don't  tell  me,  Marse  Major,  that 
you-all  don't  know  what  'abrogate'  means?" 

161 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

Jim  imitated  astonishment.  "Why,  a  thing 
abrogates  when  it  beds  itse'f  down — kind  o' 
quiles  itse'f  up  like  a  moccasin  snake." 

It  was  impressive,  the  throng  in  the  streets 
— a  multitude  hungry  for  office — a  multitude  it 
would  ask  a  miracle  to  feed  and  fill.  The 
whole  country  was  come  to  town,  the  place 
blazed  with  Jackson  badges,  every  face  shone 
with  victory.  It  was  a  pretorian  band,  and 
had  borne  its  beloved  captain  into  power  on 
its  shields.  It  was  present  now  for  jubilation 
and  for  spoil. 

For  myself,  I  surveyed  the  surging,  shout- 
ing, unkempt  thousands  with  disfavor ;  the 
General  liked  and  applauded  them. 

"They  are  as  rightfully  here,"  said  he,  "as 
the  smuggest,  slyest  rascal  of  riches  of  them 
all.  We  are  done  with  Adams  and  his  Federal 
dogma,  '  The  best  dressed  citizen  is  the  best 
citizen.'  The  day  is  the  day  of  democracy." 

"And  very  well,"  said  I;  "democracy  is 
my  creed,  too.  But  may  it  not  scrape  its  face 
with  a  razor?  Would  soap  destroy  it?  I 
grow  sick  of  a  democracy  which  finds  no  out- 
let for  expression  save  cowhide  boots  all  mud, 
and  standing  on  a  damask  chair  in  them."  The 
General  snorted;  next  to  his  dead  Saint  Rachel, 
he  loved  the  herd. 

169 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

Noah,  who  was  much  in  my  company  these 
days,  gave  one  of  his  cynic  shrugs. 

"  Major,  doubtless  you  are  a  democrat," 
observed  Noah  with  a  comic  face.  "  But  you 
have  been  too  much  solitary,  and  you've  for- 
gotten the  tenets  of  our  faith.  You  should 
recall  yourself  to  that  inscription  on  the  cor- 
nerstone of  our  temple :  '  The  Mob  giveth, 
the  Mob  taketh  away,  blessed  be  the  name  of 
the  Mob.'  " 

The  weather  was  fine,  and  clear  as  a  bell  in 
the  sky;  but  the  frost  coming  up  from  the 
ground  made  underfoot  another  sonnet  alto- 
gether. With  bright  air,  and  sun  shining,  still 
the  roads  weltered  mere  swamps,  and  all  so  set 
and  puddled  of  soft  ooze  they  would  have 
bogged  a  saddle  blanket.  Carriages  were  out 
of  the  possible ;  but,  save  for  crowds  on  the 
sidewalks,  folk  a-foot  did  well  enough. 

The  pretty  Peg  was  each  day  to  the  Indian 
Queen  to  chat  with  us.  I  saw  so  much  of  her, 
she  grew  on  me  like  a  habit. 

Eaton  for  the  war  desk  was  known  now  to 
all,  and,  verbally  at  least,  acquiesced  in.  Noah's 
slicing  work  with  his  Spanish  sword  had  been 
whispered  industriously;  scores  went  up  to 
gaze  on  the  broad  blotches  of  dull  red  where 
the  rogue  Catron's  blood  had  spread  like 
paint ;  the  arm  wide  open  from  wrist  to  shoul- 
163 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

der-joint — a  very  gutter  of  a  wound  ! — was 
dilated  upon ;  and  the  result  appeared  in  a 
wholesome  caution  on  the  conversational  parts 
of  our  enemies.  Noah  was  still  in  town;  and 
no  male  at  least  came  reckless  enough  to  court 
the  fate  of  Catron.  Besides,  the  buzz  and  talk 
of  a  new  administration  scraping  its  feet  at  the 
door  and  lifting  the  latch  of  events  would 
occupy  the  public  mouth,  and  mention  of  Peg, 
whether  for  good  or  bad,  was  crowded  out  of 
it.  The  future  would  have  been  the  better  for 
peace  had  these  conditions  secured  a  longer 
maintenance. 

Among  others,  that  Reverend  Doctor  Ely, 
for  whom  the  equally  Reverend  Campbell  and 
the  magpie  one  aforetime  came  upon  the  car- 
pet, broke  rapturously  into  town.  I  say 
"  broke,"  since  as  a  term  it  may  best  depict  the 
effusiveness  of  that  descent  upon  the  General. 
Twenty  years  before,  this  Ely  had  met  the 
General;  their  acquaintance  had  been  as  at- 
tenuated as  it  might  be  and  still  bear  up  the 
name  ;  and  with  that  slender  capital  the  hopeful 
Doctor  was  present  to  make  the  most  it. 

Surely,  I  met  the  reverend  man.  He  was 
a  bald,  brisk,  worldly  personage,  with  a  most 
noble  appetite  for  the  flesh-pots.  He  carefully 
sustained  himself  the  hypocrite  in  that  last 
behalf,  however,  and  to  folk  casual  he  offered 
164 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

nothing  beyond  an  appearance  fervently  relig- 
ious. While  with  us,  he  held  forth  in  sundry 
local  pulpits,  and  although  I  heard  him  not 
myself,  he  was  warmly  eulogized  by  pious 
critics  who  knew  what  sermons  should  be. 

The  worthy  Doctor  with  a  view  to  Florida 
dangled  about  the  General.  The  Reverend 
Campbell,  and  the  magpie  one,  dangled  about 
the  worthy  Doctor.  They  were  made  to  see, 
with  the  very  finish  of  it,  however,  that  by  no 
accident  of  concession  would  the  General  place 
their  man,  Westfall,  in  the  van  of  Florida  affairs 
to  set  up  mimic  thrones  in  the  Governor's 
Palace  of  St.  Augustine. 

The  news  was  a  blow  to  them ;  and  the 
urgent  trio  were  no  Stoics  to  be  capable  of 
excluding  from  their  brows  the  chagrin  they 
felt.  They  no  longer  harrassed  the  General, 
however,  which,  when  now  a  score  of  duties 
pulled  at  him  like  horses,  was  no  small  desider- 
atum. 

Presumably  as  a  last  ditch  wherein  to  per- 
ish, the  Reverend  Doctor  Ely  came  to  me.  I 
was  no  favorite  of  his,  nor  he  of  mine.  To 
me  he  was  not  a  precious  metal.  Polished? 
yes — and  yet  only  to  remind  one  of  brass.  He 
was,  as  I  have  said,  of  fashionable  model;  fond 
of  his  burgundy,  and  his  canvas-back  ;  garbed 
fastidiously  and  in  the  mode ;  precisely  that 

165 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

character  the  General  so  accurately  read  those 
years  before  when  he  suspected  him  as  one  less 
concerned  for  the  fit  of  his  conscience  than 
the  fit  of  his  coat. 

When  the  Reverend  Doctor  encountered 
me,  I  cut  him  short.  To  do  this,  let  me  tell 
you,  I  took  my  courage  in  my  hands,  for  it  is 
no  child's  play  to  thwart  a  dominie. 

"You  are  one  who  holds  fast  for  the  doc- 
trine of  foreordination?"  I  asked  this  like  a 
catechist  at  his  questions. 

"  I  am,"  returned  the  Reverend  Doctor. 

"  And  you  believe  that  many  are  called 
while  few  are  chosen?" 

14 1  do." 

"  And  in  original  sin  ;  and  infant  damna- 
tion ;  and  how  hell  is  paved  with  children's 
skulls?" 

"I  do.  To  what,  however,  does  this 
move?" 

11  And  the  love  of  gold  to  be  the  root  of 
evil  ?"  I  went  on,  disregarding  the  question 
thrust  at  me ;  "  and  that  it  would  be  easier  to 
pass  a  camel  through  the  needle's  eye  than  a 
rich  man  into  heaven  ?" 

"  Sir,  I  insist  on  hearing  the  purpose  of 
your  surprising  curiosity." 

"Why,  then,  it  should  all  be  huddled  into 
this.  Your  Westfall,  rich  and  sinful,  by  what 
iff 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

you  say  may  be  presumed  to  dwell  in  multiplied 
peril  of  immortal  shipwreck.  And  since  such 
be  your  craft,  and  the  trade  you  pick  up  bread 
by,  would  it  not  come  more  seemly  for  your- 
self, and  be  for  this  Westfall  an  effort  more  of 
grace,  were  you,  instead  of  storming  the  Gen- 
eral with  pleas  for  a  Governorship  which  might 
prove  but  a  worm  to  gnaw  him,  to  employ  your 
self  in  bringing  about  the  eternal  safe  advant- 
age of  his  soul?" 

The  Reverend  Doctor  withdrew,  his  dander 
much  on  furious  end,  and  shortly  thereafter  the 
tail  of  my  eye  caught  a  picture  of  him,  as — 
heads  close  together — he  conferred  whisper- 
ingly  with  the  Reverend  Campbell  in  a  corner 
of  the  longroom  of  the  Indian  Queen. 

Since  I  could  not  think  well,  I  was  careful 
to  think  nothing  at  all  of  these  reverend  office 
seekers.  In  that  latter  I  dropped  into  error; 
they  were  worthy  serious  respect.  I  should 
have  borne  it  more  upon  my  memory  how  easy 
comes  destruction,  and  that  he  who  is  incapable 
of  building  one  brick  upon  another  may  yet 
tear  down  the  most  stubborn  best  masonry  of 
man.  I  should  have  kept  before  me  those 
powers  for  ill  which  arm  the  meanest,  and  not 
have  forgotten  how  the  veriest  vermin  of  a  rat 
might  gnaw  the  canvas  of  a  Rubens. 

Remembering  those  ignoble  ones  thateven- 
167 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

ing,  I  foolishly  burst  into  disparagement  of  the 
clergy  as  a  class.  The  General  was  smart  for 
defence. 

"Humbug!"  quoth  the  General.  ''Be- 
cause you  have  seen  the  inside  of  two,  you 
would  have  it  you  know  them  all.  It  were  as 
wise  if  you  declared  Washington  to  be  a  traitor 
for  that  Arnold  would  have  sold  West  Point. 
Every  tub,  even  a  pulpit  tub,  must  stand  upon 
its  own  bottom." 

I  have  told  how  dumb  and  dead  lay  vilifi- 
cation on  the  masculine  lip,  and  that  no  man 
so  much  as  breathed  against  the  fame  of  Peg. 
There  was  notice  on  its  way  to  show  the 
women  were  unquelled. 

It  was  the  day  before  the  General's  inau- 
guration, and  he  over  ears  with  his  address, 
reading  and  re-reading  it,  so  as  to  give  the 
periods  a  best  volume  and  voice,  and  endow 
them  with  that  strutting  majesty  of  utterance 
his  vanity  conceived  belonged  in  justice  to 
their  merit.  He  would  be  by  himself  while 
thus  rehearsing,  for  he  took  shame  to  vapor 
up  and  down,  and  toss  about  before  me,  and 
swore  that  my  presence,  glowering  from  a 
chair,  would  have  daunted  Cicero.  I  was  glad 
enough  to  leave  him  to  himself,  it  being  but 
poor  sport  to  play  at  audience  for  a  bad 
orator ;  moreover,  since  the  speech  was  written 

168 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST    PEG 

in  my  Nashville  home  and  wrangled  over,  as  it 
proceeded,  by  the  General  and  myself  like  dogs 
over  a  bone,  it  would  come  to  me  as  nothing 
new.  And  so  the  General  was  left  to  plod 
about  in  his  paragraphs  much  like  a  cow  in  a 
morass,  difficult  and  slow,  and  sinking  to  the 
hocks  with  every  step.  I  could  catch  the  hum- 
ming roar  of  him  in  my  parlor,  while  he  swag- 
gered about  his  rooms,  singing  out  shrill  and 
high  in  declamation,  and  reveling  in  the  figure 
he  would  cut. 

While  I  was  idly  turning  this  weakness  of 
the  General  to  think  himself  a  Patrick  Henry, 
when  he  had  no  more  of  eloquence  or  music 
than  any  midnight  owl,  a  nervous  tap  came  on 
my  panels.  I  was  instantly  on  my  feet;  the 
tap  quite  drove  the  General  and  his  rhetoric 
out  of  my  head.  By  some  instinct,  or,  may- 
hap, the  tap  itself  was  marked  of  agitation,  I 
not  only  recognized  it  for  Peg,  but  knew  she 
was  in  grief.  I  threw  open  the  door. 

Peg  stepped  in ;  she  was  white  to  the  lips ; 
and  this  paleness  of  ivory  showed  the  more  on 
her  because  of  the  great  dark  eyes  and  those 
midnight  shadows  to  dwell  within  her  hair. 
Save  for  this  pallor,  however,  she  seemed 
steady  as  a  rock. 

It  was  on  the  outside,  though,  for  no 
sooner  was  I  seated  again  than  she  drifted 
169 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

down  before  my  feet  on  the  floor,  and,  with 
her  head  on  my  knee,  broke  into  a  passion  of 
sobbing.  I  let  my  hand,  for  sympathy,  rest  a 
moment  on  her  poor  head,  and  when  I  thought 
she  would  have  cried  enough,  lifted  her  up  and 
placed  her  in  a  chair. 

"What  is  it?"  I  said.  "I  thought  I  was 
to  see  no  more  tears  from  you."  This  I  threw 
off  in  half  sprightly  tones  to  rally  Peg. 

"  Nor  shall  you,"  cried  she,  "  but  I  was 
fair  spent  and  beaten  for  want  of  a  good  cry. 
And  you  should  know" — she  was  giving  me  a 
trace  of  brightness  now — "  that  crying  is  so 
much  like  conversation,  to  cry  alone  is  like 
talking  to  one's  self.  I  can  not  go  to  my  hus- 
band; and  the  General,  good  and  kind,  is  with 
it  all  too  old  and  too  great,  and,  therefore,  too 
much  out  of  my  reach.  I've  just  you ;  and 
that's  how  rich  I  am  for  confidants.  I've  not  a 
woman  to  be  friend  to  me  in  all  the  world ; 
nor  would  I  trust  her  if  I  had.  I've  just  you ; 
and  so  you  are  like  to  see  a  deal  of  worry." 

"All  that  is  mighty  sweet,"  I  returned, 
"and  every  word  a  flower.  And  yet,  what  is 
the  wrong?" 

"And  simply  nothing,  after  all,"  she  re- 
plied. "  Only  it's  so  much  more  horrible  to 
see  it  with  your  eyes  than  hear  it  with  your 
ears."  Peg  put  a  note  into  my  hands.  "  It 
170 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

came  through  the  post ;  and  doubtless  means 
no  more  than  the  malevolence  which  was  author 
to  it." 

The  note  had  no  name ;  nothing  to  indi- 
cate its  parentage.  It  read  : 

"  Revenge  is  sweet !  I  have  you  in  my  power  ;  and  I  shall 
burn  you  as  savages  burn  their  victim  at  the  stake.  I  pray  that 
you  live  long  to  extend  my  pleasure.  Think  not  that  you  can 
escape  me.  I  would  not  that  death  nor  any  evil  thing  should 
take  you  out  of  my  hand  for  half  the  world." 

14  The  nameless  devil!"  I  cried.  "It  is  a 
woman's  hand  of  writ,  though  the  letters  are 
made  purposely  big  and  sprawling.  Have  you 
any  thought  at  who  she  should  be?" 

"  No,"  returned  Peg ;  "  I  can  not  so  much 
as  guess." 

Peg  and  I  talked  the  question  up  and 
down,  I  asking  and  she  answering,  and  with 
the  end  we  were  where  we  started,  that  was 
nowhere  at  all.  The  Reverend  Campbell  came 
into  my  conjecturings,  he  and  his  magpie  mate ; 
but  I  did  not  mention  them,  for  what  would 
have  been  the  use  of  feathering  Peg's  imagina- 
tion with  a  surmise  ? 

"  But,  in  good  truth,  I  came  to  you,"  said 

Peg  at  the  end,  "  not  for  any  hope  of  solving 

this.  That  would  be  frankly  impossible.  Rather 

I  am  here  to  get  a  drink  of  your  courage ;  for, 

171 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

faith !  though  I  wear  as  brave  a  face  as  I  may, 
my  own  betimes  runs  something  low.  And 
now," — Peg  stood  up  and  gave  me  her  dainty 
hand,  mimicking  the  manner  of  a  man — "and 
now,  my  big  comrade,  having  had  my  cry,  and 
got  my  draught  of  courage,  I  shall  go  back  to 
the  President's  Square;  and  there  I  shall  for- 
get the  whole  story  of  this  miserable  letter. 
That  is  " — she  had  gone  into  the  hall  and  was 
closing  the  door  now,  with  only  a  strip  of  her 
sweet  face  looking  in  to  me — "  forget  all  except 
how  I  cried  at  your  knee  and  was  very,  very 
happy  because  you  were  good  and  kind  and— 
let  me  cry." 

When  the  door  was  shut,  I  picked  up  the 
note  which  Peg  had  left  and  placed  it  in  the 
private  locker  of  my  desk.  Then  I  sate  me 
down  and  thought  revengefully  on  Peg's 
wrongs,  and  the  hatefulness  of  him  who  should 
think  her  harm.  But  her  dark,  deep  eyes  were 
forever  coming  in  to  look  on  me,  and  at  the 
last  I  had  a  memory  for  nothing  but  her  beauty; 
and,  elaborating  thereon,  I  considered  how 
beauty  was  in  itself  a  benediction  implied  of 
Providence,  and  a  sermon ;  and  then  I  got  to 
reading  Burns  ;  and  I  confess — however  often 
I  had  spoken  of  them  as  so  much  sweetened 
oatmeal — there  arose  in  me  a  delight  from 
those  verses  as  though  they  were  the  songs  of 
172 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

birds.  And  throughout  the  whole,  from 
Peg's  crying  at  my  feet  until  I'd  put  Burns 
away  in  his  place,  the  drone  of  the  General, 
thundering  on  tariff,  and  finance,  and  standing 
armies,  and  sinking  funds,  was  in  the  air  ;  and 
all  futile,  so  I  thought,  and  dreary  and  worka- 
day and  commonplace. 

Somehow,  for  all  of  Burns  and  my  medita- 
tions, after  Peg  had  left  me,  my  heart  felt  poor 
and  robbed.  Also,  I  turned  less  and  less  pa- 
tient with  the  General,  humming  at  his  coming 
speech  like  a  great  bee  in  a  bottle.  At  last  I 
went  in  to  him  and  gave  him  my  tart  opinion 
of  his  doings,  for  all  the  world  like  an  actor 
with  a  part  to  study,  or  some  girl  primping 
and  preparing  for  conquest  before  a  glass. 

"  Have  you  so  forgotten  English,"  I  cried, 
u  that  you  can  not  tell  your  views  to  the  people 
without  first  telling  and  re-telling  them  a  score 
of  times  to  yourself?" 

But  the  General  was  in  a  high  mood  and 
no  more  to  be  dealt  with  than  a  tempest. 

"  Take  your  irritation  out  for  a  walk,  sir," 
said  he.  "  Take  a  walk  for  your  nerves. 
Something  has  combed  your  fur  wrong-wise ; 
and  I  don't  think  it  could  have  been  politics. 
You  prodigiously  remind  me  of  one  in  love, 
and  who  has  ear-patience  for  naught  save  the 
voice  of  his  mistress." 

173 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

Out  to  walk  I  went ;  I  did  not  think  the 
General  worth  a  retort.  You  are  not,  however, 
to  follow  his  hint,  and  lose  and  leave  the  plain 
footprints  of  the  fact.  I  was  no  more  in  love 
with  Peg  than  was  he ;  I  examined  myself  on 
that  head  and  made  myself  particularly  clear. 
Like  all  men  who  are  physically  big  and  strong, 
and,  moreover,  like  all  men  border-born  and 
taught  that  duty  from  the  ground  up  of  pro- 
tecting ones  weaker  than  themselves,  particu- 
larly women-folk  and  babes,  I  went  as  naturally 
to  Peg's  side  in  her  troubles  as  ever  went  deer 
to  drink.  It  was  in  my  nature  and  my  lesson 
to  do  this.  Sympathy  is  a  plant  to  grow  most 
quickly  on  roughest  soil ;  and  folk  of  my  shag- 
bark  sort  are  ever  soonest  on  the  ground,  and 
stay  the  longest,  when  the  cause  is  the  weeping 
cause  of  woman. 

And  there  you  have  the  explanation  of  my 
interest  for  Peg.  The  General,  himself,  was 
just  as  headlong;  his  sympathies  fair  went 
about  on  tiptoe  in  a  constant  search  for  weak 
ones  in  distress.  Not  humanity  alone,  but  ani- 
mals ;  and  I've  seen  him  go  forth  into  midnight 
sleet  and  ice — and  Death  tearing  at  his  lungs 
with  a  cough — to  bring  in  a  bleating  lamb.  It 
was,  then,  but  partisan  sympathy,  and  not  love 
in  the  bud,  which  I  felt  for  Peg ;  and  I  turned 
much  fortified  and  quieter  in  my  own  thoughts, 
174 


THE  STORM  GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

when,  following  a  rigid  search  of  my  breast,  1 
made  it  out. 

Noah,  whom  I  ran  across  in  the  corridor, 
went  with  me  for  the  walk.  We  broke  away 
northward  across  the  city  to  be  free  of  the 
crowds  which  came  and  went  about  Gadsby's 
and  the  Indian  Queen.  When  we  were  more 
alone  and  with  the  roads  to  ourselves,  I  told 
Noah  of  the  nameless  letter  to  Peg. 

11  And  that  is  a  fine  feather  in  the  cap  of 
Henry  Clay,"  I  cried  ;  "  this  employment  of 
nameless  villains  to  write  threats  to  a  girl!" 

"  Now  let  me  set  you  straight,"  said  Noah. 
"  I've  gone  to  the  ends  of  this  foul  work.  It 
is  not  the  Clay  so  much  as  the  Calhoun  interest 
which  furnishes  the  venom.  The  General  is 
turned  round ;  .he  believes  it  to  be  Clay.  I  assure 
you,  the  enemy  is  a  Calhoun  coterie  from  South 
Carolina." 

"  But  what  is  their  purpose?"  I  asked. 
"  Calhoun  is  Vice-President ;  he  will  preside 
over  the  Senate  and  be  part  of  the  administra- 
tion. Why  should  he  seek  to  mar  it?" 

"  Mark  you,  I  do  not  say,"  replied  Noah, 
"  that  Calhoun,  personally,  so  much  as  hears  of 
these  wrongs  done  in  his  name.  Your  friends 
will  sometimes  go  farther  in  your  cause  than 
you  will  go  for  yourself.  Let  me  briefly  tell 
you  what  I  know.  Calhoun  would  succeed  the 

'75 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

General  for  the  Presidency.  He  spins  a  web 
as  fine  as  any  spun  of  spiders.  So  curiously 
has  he  brought  his  forces  to  bear,  that  of  the 
six  he  will  own  three  of  the  General's  cabinet — 
Berrien,  Branch,  and  Ingham.  He  wanted  the 
war  office,  and  was  craftily  urging  Hayne,  of 
his  own  state,  when  the  General  unconsciously 
brushed  his  plan  aside  with  Eaton.  Now  the 
Calhoun  thought  is  to  drive  Eaton  from  the 
place;  and  to  mock  at  Mrs.  Eaton  and  stain 
her  with  slanders  is  the  Palmetto  idea  of  a 
method.  The  more  cruel  it  is,  the  more  likely 
to  succeed ;  and  the  latter  condones  the  igno- 
bility.  These  folk  play  for  a  White  House ; 
and  the  greater  the  stake  the  less  of  scruple  on 
the  part  of  the  players.  Remember,  too,  these 
children  of  evil  have  just  begun;  the  attacks,  as 
they  proceed,  will  mobilize  a  force.  The  women 
will  be  brought  to  their  aid.  We  gagged  the 
men's  mouths  with  a  duel ;  but  who  is  to  gag  t  h  • 
women's,  and  how  will  he  go  upon  the  work?" 

This  news  about  Calhoun  was  nothing  by 
way  of  surprise.  I  knew  him  to  be  as  am- 
bitious as  Lucifer;  more,  I  was  aware  of  him 
for  no  friend  of  the  General;  I  had  learned 
that  much  two  years  before. 

While  it  was  within  my  knowledge,  this 
enmity,  I  had  not  set  it  forth  to  the  General ; 
the  truth  of  it  would  have  done  him  no  good, 
176 


THE  STORM  GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

and  gotten  in  the  way.  It  would  have  served 
only  to  fire  his  wrath,  and  he  was  one  most  un- 
manageable when  angry. 

Wherefore  throughout  the  campaign,  while 
the  General  and  Calhoun  were  running  mates, 
I  said  no  word  of  the  latter's  secret  feeling  of 
envious  jealousy  and  hate,  and  the  General 
went  to  the  election  in  the  dark,  believing  the 
Vice-President  to  be  among  his  staunchest 
friends.  Thinking  now  of  Peg,  I  began  to 
glimpse  a  day  when  the  Calhoun  rancors  would 
be  worth  the  General's  knowledge. 

"Assuming  that  Calhoun  languishes  to  be 
President,"  said  I,  "and  intrigues  for  that 
object,  what  do  you  say  to  the  radical  sort  of 
his  States  Rights  position — going  in  for  the 
right  to  nullify  a  general  law,  and  secede  at  will 
from  the  national  circle,  and  all  that?  Would 
you  call  Calhoun  either  politic  or  right  to  oc- 
cupy those  positions? 

"  And  now  for  the  '  politic  and  right,' " 
responded  Noah,  "  Calhoun  must  go  with  the 
current.  A  statesman  is  a  scientist  of  circum- 
stances; he  must  not  fight  wind  and  tide,  but 
use  them.  In  South  Carolina,  Nullification  and 
Secession  are  doctrines  of  a  first  respectability. 
One  meets  folk  daily  who  would  sooner  be 
respectable  than  right;  and  Calhoun  may  well 

177 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

be  one  of  these.  No,"  observed  Noah  in  con. 
elusion,  speaking  with  emphasis,  "  Calhoun 
must  adopt  his  state,  or  his  state  will  not  adopt 
him.  He  can  not  build  himself  for  anything 
without  his  state  ;  that  is  the  keystone,  wanting 
which  his  arch  of  the  future  comes  tumbling  to 
the  ground." 

"  Then  you  regard  Calhoun  as  helpless, 
and  that  he  could  not,  if  he  would,  rescue  him- 
self on  a  question  of  Nullification  or  Seces- 
sion?" 

"No;  he's  as  helpless  as  a  fly  in  amber; 
he  must  go  with  his  state  or  be  lost." 

"  Do  these  proposals  of  a  right  to  nullify, 
and  a  right  to  secede,  then,  strike  so  deep  with 
their  roots?  I  had  not  thought  men  cared  so 
much  for  tariff." 

"  Sir,"  replied  Noah,  "  while  present  States 
Rights  discussion  circles  about  tariff  as  argu- 
ment most  convenient,  behind  it,  and  as  the 
grand  motive,  lurks  black  slavery.  A  protest 
against  tariff  links  many  rich  merchants,  not 
alone  in  Charleston,  but  in  every  great  sea- 
board city  from  Baltimore  to  Boston,  to  this 
doctrine.  They  would  bring  in  goods  free. 
There  be  many  among  these,  tugged  upon  by 
their  pockets,  who  can  be  brought  to  States 
Rights  for  a  tariff  argument,  and  who  would 
turn  off  in  horror  were  the  true  black  slavery 

178 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

reason  advanced.    There  you  have  the  cunning 
of  Calhoun." 

"  Then  you  hold  slavery  to  be  the  main- 
spring of  States  Rights  as  a  movement?" 

"  Absolutely,"  and  Noah's  tones  left  no 
doubt  of  his  conviction.  "  Slavery  overshadows 
all.  It  is  a  question  to  yet  shake  the  country 
in  its  soul." 

There  was  silence  between  us  ;  we  walked 
on,  I,  for  my  side,  ruminating  the  words  of 
Noah.  The  more  I  considered  them,  the  more 
they  looked  the  truth.  Calhoun's  enmity  I 
made  no  mouth  about  believing ;  indeed,  as 
I've  set  forth,  it  already  had  dwelt  in  my  knowl- 
edge for  long. 

Getting  back  to  what  was  presently  being 
acted,  I  spoke  of  that  cabinet  trio  whom  my 
companion  had  marked  as  of  the  clan  and  same 
family  of  politics  with  Calhoun. 

"  Branch,  Berrien,  and  Ingham,"  repeated 
Noah,  "  are  blood  and  bone  with  Calhoun.  If 
they  drive  out  Eaton,  there  may  come  a  fourth 
to  strengthen  them.  Four  of  a  cabinet  six ! 
That  would  make  a  mighty  beginning  in  any 
hunting  of  the  White  House." 

"And  what,"  said  I,  remembering  Peg,  and 
my  rage  swelling,  "  what  are  we  to  think  of  ones 
who  would  hunt  a  White  House  across  the  naked 
honor  of  a  woman?" 

179 


EGGY  O          NEAL 

"What  we  are  to  think,"  said  Noah,  with 
a  toss  of  the  hand,  "will  be  the  least  of  their 
worry  when  once  they  succeed." 

"And  that  will  never  happen,"  I  returned. 
"  I  hold  it  between  my  palms  to  defeat  their 
best  laid  plan — their  most  darling  chicane,  as 
you  shall  witness." 

"And  so  I  hope,"  said  he.  "Also,  now 
you  know  as  much  as  I,  it  is  left  with  you  to 
warn  the  General  and  make  bare  to  him  Cal- 
houn.  You  are  the  right  one  to  speak  with  him 
on  that  skittish  topic." 

Inauguration  as  a  ceremony  came  and  de- 
parted, and  I  looked  on  the  going  thereof  as 
its  most  superlative  feature.  There  were  twenty 
thousand  people  to  hear  the  General's  address; 
and  when  he  advanced  to  the  platform  reared 
for  him  on  the  eastern  front  of  the  Capitol,  the 
multitude  doffed  hats  and  stood  a  most  remark- 
able spectacle,  the  like  of  which  I'd  never 
gazed  on. 

But  the  later  horde  in  the  White  House 
defies  expression  1  It  was  simple  loot  and  pil- 
lage, wanting  bloodshed,  and  nothing  carried 
away.  The  cowhide  throng,  mud  and  mire  to 
the  boot-ears,  climbed  on  sofas  and  stood  on 
chairs  ;  they  would  catch  a  glimpse  of  their  god 
at  whatever  damask  cost.  When  punch  would 
have  been  brought  for  their  entertainment,  they 

i  So 


THE  STORM  GATHERS  AGAINST   PEG 

rushed  upon  the  servants  like  red  barbarians, 
struggling,  wrestling,  the  pails  spilled  out  upon 
the  floors.  It  was  I  who  settled  the  disorder, 
and  I  claim  credit  as  for  a  stratagem  which  on 
other  fields  might  have  saved  a  battle.  I  caused 
the  drinkables  to  be  quietly  withdrawn  to  the 
lawn,  beyond  the  first  hill  and  far  to  the  south. 
Then  from  a  corner  of  the  East  Room  I  an- 
nounced the  fact  with  a  loud  voice. 

It  was  as  though  my  words  bore  a  charm  ; 
in  a  twinkling  the  White  House  proper  ap- 
proached desertion.  Folk  decent  and  civilized 
might  again  move  about,  and  quiet  ones  have 
peace.  The  mob  never  came  back,  for  I  made 
it  my  duty  that  no  lack  of  punch  should  occur 
on  the  lawn ;  there  the  uproarious  remained 
and  drank,  and  at  last — those  who  could  walk 
— they  drifted  away,  each  deviously  to  his  habi- 
tat, and  something  akin  to  quiet  settled  again 
about  the  eaves  and  rafters  of  the  mansion. 

The  General  put  in  most  of  the  next  day 
on  a  lounge,  in  nurse  to  Augustus,  recovering 
from  the  ordeal.  It  all  but  swept  his  life  away 
as  in  a  freshet.  However,  he  pulled  through  ; 
and  when  in  the  evening  I  went  to  ask  about 
his  condition,  I  found  him  with  that  little  mini- 
ature of  his  wife  I've  spoken  of,  and  her  hymn- 
book,  wherewith  he  made  his  daily  church  and 
said  his  prayers.  What  a  soul  would  have  been 

181 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

his  for  cross-handles  and  chain-mail! — what  a 
knight !  so  dauntless  among  men,  and  withal  so 
loyal  with  all  his  love  to  the  dear  lady  of  his 
heart.  She  might  die  to  others,  but  she  would 
never  die  to  him.  His  love  would  each  night 
search  her  out  among  the  stars. 

And  now  we  settled  down  to  our  strange 
life.  But  since  I  use  the  word,  let  me  tell  you 
in  how  short  a  period  the  strange  becomes  the 
common ;  for  I  had  not  been  a  week  in  the 
White  House,  and  in  and  out  of  its  great 
rooms,  when  all  was  as  familiar  and  friendly  to 
me  as  though  I  had  passed  my  days  from  boy- 
hood within  the  four  walls  of  it. 

The  General's  family,  beyond  himself  and 
me,  was  made  up  of  his  nephew  Donalson,  the 
latter's  wife,  and  the  portrait-maker,  Earl ;  not 
an  extensive  circle,  truly,  and  one  to  be  soon 
contracted  by  the  desertion  of  two,  as  you 
shall  presently  hear. 

We  were  still  in  process  of  that  mild 
wrangle  with  our  new  abode  which  must  ever 
precede  a  last  adjustment,  when,  like  a  clap  of 
thunder  from  a  sky  without  a  cloud,  the  Gen- 
eral's niece — she  who  was  our  Lady  of  the 
White  House — came  upon  him.  There  lowered 
something  formidable  and  gloomy  in  the  mien 
of  the  young  woman  as  she  entered  the  room, 
and  (because  no  towering  force  of  character  had 
182 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

distinguished  her  theretofore,  this  cloudy  some- 
thing was  the  more  to  be  observed.  I  should 
have  said,  too,  the  social  lines  were  already  being 
set  for  and  against  our  pretty  Peg,  and  this 
visit  of  the  General's  niece  was  somewhat  in  the 
nature  of  a  blow  from  the  enemy's  side. 

"What  is  it,  my  dear?"  asked  the  Gen- 
eral, glancing  up  from  his  conversation  with  me. 

"  Uncle,"  she  said,  much  in  the  manner 
of  a  starling  which  whistles  a  tune  that  has 
been  taught  it,  "  Uncle,  I  am  here  to  tell  you 
that  I  can  not  call  upon  Mrs.  Eaton.  I  will 
receive  her,  since  this  is  your  house,  and  you 
its  master.  But  call  on  her  in  return,  I  can 
not." 

"Hoity  toity!"  quoth  the  General,  "and 
now  where  did  you  learn  these  bad  manners?' 

"  It  is  my  duty  to  myself,  Uncle ;  there  is 
not  a  lady  in  Washington,  beginning  with 
Mrs.  Calhoun  and  going  down  to  the  least 
among  us,  who  will  call  on  Mrs.  Eaton ;  there- 
fore, I  can  not  call  on  her." 

"  Then  you  might  better  go  back  to  Ten- 
nessee, my  dear,"  said  the  General. 

And  the  niece  and  her  husband  went. 

The  word  "  Calhoun,"  had  not,  however, 

escaped  the  General.     It  was  forever  cropping 

up    in  manner   and    form    most   sinister,   that 

word  Calhoun;  and  in  the  entire  crusade  of 

183 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

venom  waged  upon  our  Peg,  it  seemed  on  the 
lips  of  everyone  with  whom  the  exigencies  of 
the  hour  threw  us  into  speech,  from  the  im- 
mortal Pigeon-breast  to  the  General's  very 
niece. 

"The  Calhoun  interest,"  remarked  the 
General,  when  his  young  relative  had  retired  in 
wrath  to  pack  her  trunks,  "would  appear  to 
be  headquarters  for  the  foe." 

The  General  said  "  foe"  and  meant  it;  for 
he  was  one  whose  eyes  were  in  his  heart  and 
saw  ever  his  enemy  in  the  enemy  of  his  friend. 

It  was  then  I  took  occasion  to  lay  out  to 
the  General  in  particular,  not  alone  the  plan  of 
Calhoun  to  seize  a  presidency;  not  alone  his 
leadership  in  that  war  of  politics  then  muster- 
ing forces  over  Nullification  and  a  state's  right 
to  secede,  and  which  in  the  next  Congress  gave 
birth  to  the  debates  between  Webster  and 
Hayne ;  but  I  went  a  step  beyond,  and  ex- 
hibited the  hidden  enmity  of  Calhoun  which 
was  leveled  at  himself,  and  had  hunted  his 
destruction  as  far  away  as  the  Seminole  cam- 
paign, when  Calhoun  was  in  Monroe's  cabinet 
as  Secretary  of  War. 

"  It  is  true,"  I  declared ;  "  at  that  time 
your  only  friend  was  Monroe,  Calhoun  in  the 
secret  councils  of  the  cabinet  was  warm  to 
break  your  sword." 

184 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST    PEG 

"  How  do  you  know  that?"  demanded  the 
General,  his  eye  making  for  heat. 

"  I  read  it  in  a  letter  from  Governor  For- 
sythe  to  Colonel  Hamilton.  If  that  be  not 
enough,  I  heard  it  from  ex-President  Monroe 
himself,  when  last  evening  he  was  with  us  here 
to  dinner.  Moreover,  I  was  made  aware  of 
it  two  years  ago  on  my  trip  to  the  Missis- 
sippi." 

"  And  why  did  I  not  hear  of  it  before?" 

"  You  have  learned  it  in  ample  time  for 
every  interest  you  carry,  whether  of  your  own 
or  Peg's." 

"That  is  true,"  said  the  General,  "that  is 
quite  true."  Then  he  mused  with  bended 
brow.  At  last  he  burst  forth:  "  I  begin  to  see 
into  the  Calhoun  thoughts.  He  knows  my 
rule,  which  we  agreed  on  before  we  left  Nash- 
ville, that  no  member  of  my  cabinet  shall  suc- 
ceed me.  That  leaves  him  but  two  rivals,  Clay 
and  Adams,  for  Crawford  can  never  run  again. 
He  has  three  adherents  in  my  cabinet  through 
whose  aid  he  hopes  to  feather  the  nest  of  his 
ambitions  with  patronage.  He  would  destroy 
Eaton  with  the  thought  of  gaining  a  fourth. 
Meanwhile  he  will  preside  over  the  Senate,  and 
control  legislation  in  favor  of  low  tariff,  if  not 
a  flat  level  of  free  trade.  Thus  he  trusts  to 
break  down  Clay  and  Adams,  who  are  wedded 

185 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

to  protection.  Verily,  a  most  noble,  a  most 
delicate  bit  of  chicane !"  Here  the  General 
brooded  for  a  long  space.  "  I  might  admire 
it,"  he  went  on,  u  nay,  I  might  even  aid  it  on 
its  high-stepping  way,  were  it  not  that  he  in- 
cludes in  his  intrigue  the  destruction  of  a  girl. 
It  is  like  a  play,  Major,  and  we  must  foil  the 
villain  and  save  our  beautiful  Peg.  Her  name 
shall  not  be  blown  upon,  though  all  the  presi- 
dencies for  ten  centuries  to  come  depend  upon 
it !  Peg  came  spotless  among  us ;  and  from 
among  us,  spotless  she  shall  depart ;  and  that 
in  the  teeth  of  all  the  Calhouns  that  ever  came 
out  of  Carolina." 

The  General  smashed  his  clay  pipe  at  this 
crisis,  and  by  that  token  I  knew  the  thing  to 
be  already  done.  It  was  a  way  he  had,  this 
pipe-breaking,  of  signing  his  bonds. 

Peg  lived  catty-cornered  across  the  Presi- 
dent's Square,  and  ran  in  and  out  of  the  White 
House  like  one  of  the  inmates.  She  liked  the 
flowers,  and  she  liked  the  pictures,  and  was 
never  tired  of  gazing  at  the  latter  and  smelling 
to  the  former.  She  was  so  much  sunshine 
about  the  mansion,  not  the  lightest  nor  yet  the 
least  gloomy  house  in  nature,  but  quite  the 
contrary. 

One  day  a  little  scene  occurred  about 
which  nothing  of  import  clambered,  and  yet  I 

186 


THE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST    PEG 

would  give  it  here  ;  for  it  pleases  me  when  now 
I'm  fallen  in  the  vale  of  years,  and  the  General 
and  Peg  and  those  others  who  were  my  friends 
are  dead  and  gone  from  out  my  hands,  to  re- 
member such  frail  matters  for  their  sweetness 
rather  than  their  consequence ;  and  truth  to 
say,  they  stay  by  me,  too,  with  gentle  clearness 
when  events  that  were  of  moment  are  clean 
faded  from  my  mind. 

Peg,  then,  was  dragging  me  about  by  the 
hand — for  she  was  as  much  the  romp  as  any 
child — and  we  journeyed  from  roon  to  room, 
and  from  picture  to  picture.  We  were  standing 
in  front  of  that  portrait  of  Washington  which 
Dolly  Madison  once  slashed  from  its  frame  to 
save  from  vandal  British. 

"  Come,"  said  Peg,  tugging  at  my  wrist 
with  the  two  hands  of  her,  "  I'm  weary  of  these. 
Doubtless  he  was  a  wondrous  fine  gentleman" 
— pointing  to  the  painted  figure  of  our  first 
president — u  and  lived  well  aware  of  it,  himself, 
as  one  may  know  by  the  satisfied  smirk  of  him. 
But  show  me  some  other  picture,  one  more 
beautiful  and  less  grand — and  not  so  satisfied 
with  itself,  and  respectable.  All  the  folk  I  hate 
are  respectable,  and  I  begin  to  loathe  the 
word!" 

"  I  can  show  you  the  most  beautiful  picture 
187 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

in  the  world,"  I  retorted  ;  and,  whirling  her  by 
the  shoulders,  I  stood  her  before  a  mirror. 

Peg  looked  upon  her  kindly  reflection  for 
long  in  silence ;  then  her  eyes  filled  up. 

"  It  isn't  your  compliments  I  cry  for,"  said 
Peg,  breaking  into  a  catchy  laugh ;  "  but  your 
tone  is  so  queer  with  the  sheer  kindness  of  it, 
that  I  am  taken  by  the  heart.  You  dear,  true 
friend  ;  you  at  least  think  good  of  little  Peg !" 
And  with  that,  she  came  quite  close,  and  turned 
her  face  in  wistful  yet  trusting  fashion  up  to 
mine. 

An  hour  later — and  it  was  growth  of  this 
— I  did  a  foolish  action ;  and  yet  no  harm 
turned  of  it,  but  only  a  better  friendship  be- 
tween myself  and  the  coxcomb  Pigeon-breast. 
It  fell  forth  when  Peg  was  gone  home,  and  I 
alone  near  the  north  door  of  the  big  East 
Room,  and  none  save  myself  in  the  broad  ex- 
panse of  that  mighty  apartment.  My  soul  was 
somewhat  in  arms  over  Peg,  for  the  wintry 
moan  in  her  tones  when  she  spoke  of  my  faith 
in  her  goodness  was  still  working  on  me,  and  I 
would  have  bartered  ten  years  of  my  life  to 
have  had  set  before  me  some  specific  male  of 
my  species  who  should  avow  himself  Peg's  evil- 
thinker.  My  vengeance  was  starving  and 
wolfish,  and  I  would  have  fed  it  with  him. 

While  in  this  vein  of  fret   and   tumult,  I 

iSS 


'1  HE   STORM   GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

caught  the  voice  of  Jim  in  the  hallway  outside 
the  door. 

"Do  I  know  d'Marse  Major?"  I  heard 
Jim  say,  apparently  in  answer  to  the  question ; 
"does  Jim  know  d'Marse  Major?  Well,  Jim 
should  say  likely;  for,  you  hyar  me!  Jim's 
been  all  through  him  with  a  lantern.  You-all 
may  tell  them  gambler-gentlemen  somethin' 
new  about  a  ace  of  clubs;  an'mebbyyou  could 
post  Jim  of  somethin'  he  aint  heerd  about  corn 
whiskey ;  but  I  don't  allow  thar's  anythin' 
mo'  for  Jim  to  learn  about  d'Marse  Major. 
'Cause  why;  'cause  he's  Jim's  Marse  Major, 
an'  I  jes'  nacherally  raise  him,  I  does,  from  a 
colt." 

When  I  stepped  into  the  vestibule  to 
answer  to  my  own  name,  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
extravagances  of  Jim,  I  saw,  to  my  astonish- 
ment, that  the  caller  was  no  less  a  personage 
than  Pigeon-breast.  Without  pausing  to  hear 
his  mission,  I  took  him  by  the  arm  and  led  him 
out  upon  the  lawn. 

Once  there,  however,  I  was  sore  put  to  it 
to  show  reason  for  my  conduct,  of  the  rather 
extraordinary  character  of  which  one  caught 
some  glint  in  the  expression  of  amazement 
that  made  wide  the  eyes  of  Pigeon-breast  and 
all  but  set  his  mouth  ajar. 

Now  the  truth  was,  that  anonymous  letter 
189 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

to  Peg,  and  which  lay  safe  locked  in  my  desk, 
had  ever  stuck  in  my  craw.  I  said  it  was  a 
woman's  hand  of  writing,  but  I  was  by  no 
means  sure.  Knowing  hardly  a  baker's  dozen 
of  folk  in  town,  there  were  not  many  for  my 
thoughts  to  run  upon  in  this  scurvy  business ; 
and  I  had  had  it  now  and  then  on  my  mind— 
the  more  since  Pigeon-breast  had  broken  into 
the  trouble  at  an  early  hour  as  the  open  ill- 
wisher  of  Peg — to  call  this  fine  gentleman's 
attention  to  the  missive  with  a  view  to  asking 
him  was  he  its  architect.  In  my  present  frame 
of  hunger  to  lay  hands  on  a  flesh  and  blood 
enemy  of  Peg's — one  of  my  own  rude  sex — 
and  I  suppose  because  Pigeon-breast  was  a 
foppish  creature  of  scents  and  ribbons  who 
might  lean  to  feminine  methods  of  attack,  I 
put  the  question  to  him.  Fairly,  I  blurted 
it  out,  and  I  fear  with  nothing  of  fineness  or 
diplomacy. 

"  Me  ?"  cried  the  outraged  Pigeon-breast  in 
a  shrill  treble  through  a  sense  of  injustice ; 
"me?"  he  cried  again,  starting  back  a  pace, 
perhaps  from  savageries  which  looked  out  upon 
him  from  my  eye,  "never!  On  my  soul  I  to 
think  of  such  a  thing!  Me  write  an  anony- 
mous letter!  Why,  sir,"  and  poor  Pigeon- 
breast  chirped  forth  the  words  like  a  mouse 
that  has  been  wronged,  "why,  sir,  should  a 
190 


THE  STORM  GATHERS  AGAINST  PEG 

man  say  so,  I'd  have  him  to  the  field,  sir,  and 
cut  his  throat." 

There  was  no  doubt  of  it ;  the  insulted 
Pigeon-breast  was  not  the  author  of  that  letter. 
No  man  might  simulate  his  indignant  excite- 
ment. I  made  amends  handsomely,  and  for 
the  first  time  Pigeon-breast  and  I  shook  hands. 
There  was  no  harm  in  the  creature  save  that  he 
was  a  bandbox  fool. 

It  ran  well  towards  evening  when  I  went 
about  in  the  conservatory  culling  a  basket  of 
flowers  for  Peg.  This  I  was  wont  to  do  each 
day,  since  the  blossoms  went  otherwise  to  waste  ; 
for  the  place  was  a  mere  lair  and  nest  of  mas- 
culinity, with  the  General's  niece  gone  home, 
and  none  about  save  the  General  and  myself — 
and  I  might  add  Earl,  but  he  had  no  wit  save 
for  canvas  and  colors,  and  no  thought  except 
from  morning  till  night  to  paint  the  General's 
portrait.  The  General  and  I  were  no  mighty 
consumers  of  nosegays;  wherefore,  as  I've  said, 
and  to  save  the  flowers  from  loss,  I  was  used 
each  day  to  cut  an  armful  of  the  best  and 
bravest  and  send  them  across  to  Peg's,  where 
they  would  give  her  smile  for  smile  and  dare 
their  beauties  against  her  own  from  every 
corner. 

While  I  was  roving  right  and  left  among 
the  blossoms,  the  General  came  in  with  long 
191. 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

strides.  There  was  a  kind  of  angry  hurry  to 
him,  and  he  carried  a  letter  in  his  hand. 

"  Here  is  something  to  make  you  curse 
your  kind,"  cried  he.  Then,  seeing  my  flowers: 
"  How  now!  how  nowl  and  when  was  Mars  a 
gardener  and  has  the  world  turned  girl! 
These  should  be  thin  days  and  bloodless,  when 
the  starkest  saber  that  ever  rode  on  my  bridle 
hand — he  whom  the  Creeks  called  the  '  Big 
Death  ' — loiters  with  woman's  wares  and  learns 
to  twine  a  posy." 

"They  are  for  Peg,"  said  I,  more  nettled 
than  I  showed,  for  it  struck  me  he  talked  a 
deal  about  nothing  at  all. 

"  Oh,  they  are  for  Peg,"  he  repeated,  his 
glance  whimsical,  yet  narrow  and  intent ;  "  they 
are  for  Peg!"  Then  just  as  I  was  warming  to 
the  brink  of  knowing  what  he  would  mean  by 
that,  he  harked  back  suddenly  to  the  letter  in 
his  clutch.  "  Come  with  me.  Here  is  a  word 
from  that  very  Reverend  Doctor  Ely  about  your 
Peg,  and  we  must  concert  steps  to  prove  him 
the  false  defamer  that  he  is." 


19* 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    SECRETARY,  SUAVE   AS   CREAM. 

And  now  there  comes  beneath  my  hand 
the  hard  portion  of  this  history,  the  part  which 
I  most  mislike  and  bear  with  least  of  patience. 
It  is  the  record  written  by  the  smug,  false 
Doctor  Ely  to  the  General,  wherein  with  a  par- 
ticular past  bearing,  he  piled  up  his  scarlet 
charges.  There  came  a  dozen  counts,  and  as 
if  it  were  an  indictment ;  and  in  them  no  slack- 
ness, but,  instead,  an  evil  confidence  of  state- 
ment plain  and  clear,  as  one  after  another  he 
cast  those  stones  at  Peg.  Nor  shall  his  com- 
munication be  set  forth  ;  I  would  not  so  offend 
against  the  whiteness  of  Peg's  name,  nor  yet 
harass  my  own  soul's  roots  by  giving  a  line  of 
it  to  types  and  presses.  The  more,  since  it 
was  all  a  web  of  lies  which  sly  rogues  wove  for 
the  shallow  hand  of  this  Ely ;  and  not  enough 
of  truth  in  it  from  top  to  bottom  as  should 
serve  to  make  it  respectable  falsehood.  Suffi- 
cient that  there  were  stories  with  Washington 
and  again  New  York  as  the  theatres,  and  on 
these  was  based  a  brazen  demand  that  Eaton 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

be  dismissed  the  cabinet  and  Peg  whipped  from 
among  women  wherever  virtue  had  a  name. 

As  the  General  read  these  things  aloud  I 
sat  biting  my  nail  in  the  flaming  impatience  of 
my  rage. 

"  And  now  what  think  you?"  said  he,  when 
he  was  done. 

11 1  think,"  cried  I,  "  that  I  shall  ride  at 
once  for  the  caitiff  ears  of  him." 

The  General,  seeing  my  anger,  turned  to 
be  mighty  calm.  It  was  a  manner  of  ours  that 
when  I  was  for  a  rage  he  would  go  the  other 
way ;  I,  on  my  side  and  by  way  of  requital, 
showed  never  so  busy  about  methods  for  peace 
as  when  the  General  was  for  sounding  Boots 
and  Saddles.  So,  beholding  me  eating  my 
fingers  in  a  sort  of  blood-eagerness  to  come 
at  the  throat  of  that  Ely,  the  General  would 
be  for  craft ;  and  to  demand  proof ;  and  to  go 
upon  a  litigation  of  the  business  among  our- 
selves. 

"And  now  you  know,"  said  the  General, 
with  a  bitterness  in  his  mouth  like  aloes,  "why 
I  fear  preachers  and  your  peace  folk.  Here  is 
a  false  tissue  against  a  girl  as  white  as  an 
angel," 

"  My  soul  for  that !"  I  interjected. 

"  No  one  not  of  the  cloth,  and  saved  from 
men's  vengeance  bv  his  coat  and  ruffle,  would 
194 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

so  dare.     But  now  this  Ely  throws  these  lies  in 
our  laps,  and  we  must  sit  tied." 

"  Yes,"  I  cried,  "  I  see  your  meaning  right 
well,  and  I  would  give  my  left  hand  at  the  wrist 
joint  could  any  gate  be  opened  through  which 
in  honor  I  might  win  to  the  miscreant's  heart." 

Now  the  General  read  the  letter  to  himself; 
now  he  knitted  his  forehead  into  a  snarl  and 
brooded  while  over  against  him  I  sat  fury- 
stung. 

"  Two  matters  we  are  to  agree  on,"  said 
the  General  at  last.  "  We  are  not  to  tell  Peg." 

"No,"  said  I. 

"Nor  Eaton." 

Now,  somehow,  I  in  no  fashion,  not  even 
the  most  shadowy,  had  had  Eaton  on  my  slope 
of  thought.  It  had  seemed,  in  the  confusion  of 
wrath  into  which  this  charge  laid  on  poor  Peg 
had  stirred  me,  as  though  there  were  just  three 
folk  in  interest  for  our  own  side,  being  the 
General  and  Peg  and  myself.  The  mention  of 
Eaton  struck  on  me  in  a  strange,  blistering  way, 
and  was  as  much  an  iron  in  my  soul  as  the 
slanders  of  that  infamous  Ely  himself.  This 
came  to  be  no  more  than  a  blur  of  my  wits, 
however ;  it  departed  in  a  blink,  and  then  a 
feeling  somewhat  of  pleasure  succeeded  to 
think  Eaton  would  not  be  engaged  in  Peg's 
defence. 

195 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

11  Peg  shall  not  know,"  repeated  the  Gen- 
eral, as  he  who  goes  over  a  manoeuvre  in  his 
mind,  "  Eaton  shall  not  know.  You  and  I  will 
be  enough ;  and  Noah ;  and  mayhap  Henry 
Lee,  since  I  think,  Major,  you  are  not  the  man 
to  be  trusted  with  a  reply.  You — like  myself 
— would  overflow  too  much,  since  you  own  a 
feeling  too  deep." 

There  was  sense  in  what  the  General  ad- 
vanced ;  I  was  in  an  ill  frame  for  cunning,  and 
to  be  cool  of  quill  with  any  specious  or  refu- 
tatory  letter-writing.  I  could  have  indited 
nothing  that  would  not  run  into  a  challenge 
with  the  first  line  ;  and,  with  the  pulpit  character 
of  the  foe  to  be  our  answer,  that  would  have 
been  as  so  much  raving  madness. 

"  Let  us '  said  the  General,  again  taking 
up  the  scrawl,  "examine  this  precious  scorpion's 
nest  in  detail,  and  then  we  may  know  best  how 
it  should  be  torn  to  pieces.  This  Ely  does  not 
make  these  charges  by  his  own  knowledge,  but 
declares  how  he  believes  in  their  truth  on  the 
word  of  some  '  extremely  honest  individual '  of 
this  town.  This  person  would  be  so  much  the 
viper  he  must  needs  hide  and  crawl  under 
cover ;  for  this  Ely  also  says  '  who  asks  his  name 
withheld.' " 

By  this  time  I  had  myself  in  recovery  and 
began  to  take  a  part  in  the  thinking. 
196 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

"  First,  then,"  said  I,  "  is  there  any  accusa- 
tion carried  which  you,  yourself,  should  con- 
tradict?" 

"  There  are  two,"  returned  the  General. 
"This  Ely  has  it  that  my  dear  wife  knew  Peg's 
bad  conduct  and  condemned  her  for  it.  That 
is  false ;  my  wife  spoke  of  Peg  within  a  six- 
month;  she  loved  her  like  her  own  child;  and, 
I  well  recall,  she  kissed  Peg  when  last  we  left 
this  place.  Then,  too,  Ely  asserts  how  Tim- 
berlake  was  jealous  of  Eaton  before  he  sailed 
for  the  Mediterranean,  hated  him  as  Peg's 
tempter,  and  would  have  slain  him.  That,  also, 
I  should  know  to  be  a  lie ;  for  here,"  and  the 
General  crossed  to  a  shelf  and  took  down  a 
rich  Turkish  tobacco  pouch,  "  is  a  tobacco 
pocket  which  Timberlake  sent  to  Eaton  with  a 
letter  asking  him  to  give  it  me  when  I  arrived ; 
and  the  letter  bore  date  not  ten  days  before 
Timberlake  died.  There  remain  but  two  great 
delinquencies  alleged ;  the  one  here  and  the 
other  in  New  York ;  and  both  are  capable  of 
proof  for  either  their  truth  or  falsity." 

"  And  how  shall  we  go  about  that  proof?" 
I  asked. 

"  As  a  primary  step,  then,  let  us  have 
Noah  with  us." 

Noah  came,  and  the  General  put  the  Ely 
letter  into  his  dark,  nervous  hands. 

197 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  The  gentleman  seems  marvelously 
prompt,"  said  Noah,  "  to  decide  a  woman's 
fame  away  on  barest  hearsay.  Doubtless  he 
is  a  good  Christian,  but  he  would  make  a  bad 
judge." 

"  This  is  what  you  will  do,  Noah,  if  you 
love  me,"  said  the  General :  "  Go  to  Philadel- 
phia. Squeeze  from  this  Ely  the  name  of  that 
reptile  on  whose  word  he  starts  about  this 
crime  against  innocence.  Then  press  to  New 
York  for  the  evidence  needed  to  display  the 
falsehood  he  tells  concerning  Peg  in  that 
place." 

When  Noah  had  gone  forth,  the  General 
called  in  Henry  Lee,  who  was  a  secret,  truth- 
worthy  man,  and,  dictating  while  Lee  did  the 
pen  work,  proceeded  to  beat  the  Reverend  Ely 
and  his  lies  as  folk  beat  carpets.  The  Gen- 
eral, when  it  was  done,  dismissing  Lee,  read  to 
me  his  answer;  and  I  could  not  so  much  as 
add  one  word.  It  was  as  complete  a  retort, 
and  withal  as  slashing  an  arraignment  of  this 
Ely  for  his  own  cruel  part,  as  might  be  com- 
passed with  paper  and  ink.  I  listened ;  and  I 
never  loved  the  General  half  so  well  before. 

"And   yet,"  observed   the   General,  when 
he  had  closed  the  reading  and  the  letter  lay 
ready  for  the  post,  "  this  Ely  is  but  the  mask 
for  some  rogue  who  hides  behind  him." 
198 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

There  was  no  more  to  do  now,  save  wait 
for  Noah's  return.  I  had  one  ordeal  of  the 
spirit,  however;  that  was  when  Peg  came  next 
day.  I  so  yearned  over  her  in  pity,  it  marked 
itself  in  my  face  and  she  took  some  dim  ac- 
count of  it.  She  went  away  wrong  in  her 
hunting  for  a  cause,  however. 

"What  has  been  the  mischance?"  said 
Peg,  getting  up  and  standing  behind  my  chair 
with  a  soft  hand  on  each  of  my  shoulders. 
"You've  had  poor  news  from  your  farms?" 

"Ahorse  dead,"  I  replied.  This  was  so 
far  true  as  a  word  that  the  letter  telling  me 
thereof  had  but  just  arrived,  and  lay  open  on 
my  table.  "  Only  that  a  favorite  horse  has 
died,"  I  replied.  "  But  he  was  one  of  the 
General's  Truxton  colts,  and  I  but  loth  to  lose 
him." 

It  was  a  soon  day  thereafter,  and  we  yet 
waiting  for  word  of  Noah,  when  the  General 
re-opened  the  affair  of  the  Ely  letter. 

"  The  man  Ely,"  said  he,  thoughtfully, 
"  has  been  practiced  upon.  The  Calhoun  in- 
terest it  was  which  stirred  him  to  this.  He 
would  be  clay  easily  moulded  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, and  peculiarly  when  the  potters  employed 
upon  him  might  promise  somewhat  for  his 
ambition.  As  against  Eaton  and  Peg,  the  fellow 
would  needs  lack  personal  motive,  since  he 

199 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

knows  them  not  at  all.  He  might  find  in  his 
bosom,  truly,  a  part  willingness  to  disturb  me, 
because  I  broke  the  heart  of  his  hope  for  a 
Florida  exaltation.  Yet  even  with  that  to  train 
his  malignancy  upon  the  Eatons,  it  is  clear  he 
must  be  loaded,  primed,  and  aimed  by  other 
hands.  Thus  do  I  make  the  story  of  it:  if 
Clay  be  out,  as  you  declare,  who  is  there  save 
Calhoun  to  put  this  Ely  forward?  Then,  too, 
there  is  the  coincidence  of  method.  Ely  does 
there  what  the  Calhoun  folk  do  here." 

"  Still,"  I  returned,  for  I  believed  in  justice 
though  to  an  enemy,  and  would  not  condemn 
the  Vice-President  without  some  open  sureness 
of  proof;  "still,  as  Noah  explained,  these  vil- 
lainies might  find  act  and  parcel  in  Calhoun's 
interests,  and  that  gentleman  be  as  innocent  of 
personal  part  as  next  year's  babes." 

"  Be  that  as  it  may,"  retorted  the  General, 
"  a  man  is  responsible  for  his  dogs.  Besides,  it 
is  too  much  to  believe  that  Calhoun  has  no 
notice  of  this  war  on  the  Eatons." 

"Oh,  as  to  that,"  I  replied,  "I  think  there 
is  scant  doubt.  An  important  movement  in 
his  destinies  is  not  to  continue  for  long  in  the 
dark,  to  a  keen  sight  like  Calhoun's.  How- 
ever, he  might  miss  details." 

"  He  knows  of  these  tales  against  Peg," 
declared  the  General  firmly,  and  as  though  the 

200 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

question  were  solved  and  settled.  "  Also,  by 
lifting  his  finger  he  could  end  them  in  the 
mouths  that  give  them  words.  When  one  can 
do  a  thing  and  doesn't  do  it,  that  is  because 
one  doesn't  want  to  do  it,  but  prefers  things  as 
they  are.  And  there  you  have  it.  In  the  mean 
courses  against  Peg  your  Vice-President  is  ac- 
cessory. By  the  Eternal!"  swore  the  General 
abruptly,  beginning  to  walk  about  the  floor, 
"  but  such  perfidy  makes  me  to  loathe  the  man! 
I  should  hate  all  that  comes  from  him,  whether 
of  policy  or  plan.  For  where  a  source  is  foul, 
the  stream  will  be  unclean." 

There  was  now  to  enter  upon  the  stage 
one  who  wrought  strongly  for  Peg's  defence. 
But  he  toiled  better  for  himself,  for  at  last  he 
took  the  White  House  by  it ;  the  General  in  a 
gust  of  kindness  for  what  he  did  in  Peg's 
pure  favor  making  him  his  heir  of  politics  and 
laying  the  presidency  in  his  hands  with  the 
death  of  his  own  second  term.  This  person- 
age, to  be  so  much  the  ally  of  Peg,  and  so 
fortunate  for  his  own  future,  was  none  other 
than  that  Van  Buren  who  resigned  his  Gov- 
ernorship and  traveled  the  long  way  from 
Albany  to  become  the  General's  Secretary  of 
State. 

Heretofore  I've  made  suggestion  that 
the  General's  knowledge  of  Van  Buren  was 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

nothing  deep,  but  only  narrow  and  of  a  sur- 
face sort.  More  ;  the  truth  was  that  now  when 
the  General  stood  in  the  midst  of  this  Eaton 
trouble  and  saw  a  long  strife  ahead,  he  was  by 
no  sense  secure  for  the  coming  attitude  of  his 
premier,  and  went  doubt-pricked  as  to  whether 
or  no  it  would  turn  to  be  a  friendly  one.  I 
could  discern  some  feather  of  these  misgiv- 
ings when  one  evening  over  our  pipes  w^  dwelt 
on  Marcy  and  Van  Buren,  these  two  beirtg  top- 
most spirits  of  our  party  in  their  state. 

Marcy  was  a  bold  man,  and  strong  with  a 
burly  force  ;  as  frank  and  without  fear  too,  as  a 
soldier,  and  less  the  hypocrite  than  any  of  his 
day.  He  had  yet  to  say,  from  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  "  The  politicians  of  my  state  wear  no 
masks  of  superior  goodness  and  make  no  pre- 
tences. They  are  content  to  preach  what  they 
practice.  If  they  be  defeated,  they  expect  to 
step  down  and  out;  if  they  triumph,  they  look 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  victory.  They  see 
no  harm  in  the  aphorism,  'To  the  victor  belongs 
the  spoil  of  the  enemy.' '  Marcy,  I  say,  had 
not  yet  uttered  these  words  in  the  Senate  ;  but 
they  dwelt  with  him  as  a  sentiment;  he  had 
given  them  expression  in  Duff  Green's  paper; 
and,  since  the  General  said  nothing  in  negation, 
they  were  held  to  declare  the  feelings  of  the 
JKrniinistration. 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

Before  this,  I  have  written  somewhere, 
have  I  not  ? — for  old  age  can  not  hold  a  memory, 
nor  tell  a  lucid  story  step  by  step,  but  forever 
must  wander  to  the  garrulous  this-side-or-that, 
with  topics  alien  to  the  task  in  hand — how 
I  caught  some  flash  of  the  General's  uncertainty 
of  Van  Buren  and  the  pose  that  gentleman 
would  take  on?  It  fell  in  this  kind.  I  had 
asked  then  a  question  about  Van  Buren,  and 
how  he  compared  with  his  fellow  captain, 
Marcy.  The  General  shook  uncertain  head. 

"Van  Buren  may  surprise  us,"  said  he, 
"  and  show  me  wrong  besides  ;  but  this  is  what 
I  think.  You  are  to  bear  in  mind,  also,  that 
his  selection  to  be  at  my  cabinet  right  hand  was 
not  personal  but  political.  Here  is  how  I  hold 
him."  Now  the  General  spoke  with  a  thought- 
ful, measured  flow  of  speech,  as  though  his  eye 
were  turned  to  introspection,  and  he  read,  as 
one  reads  a  page  of  print,  his  estimate  of  him 
whom  he  sought  to  weigh.  "  Van  Buren  is  essen- 
tially furtive,  lurking,  cat-like.  He  delights  in 
moonlight  politics  and  follows  the  byways. 
He  avoids  the  eye,  is  seldom  in  the  show  ring, 
and,  in  making  his  excursions,  sticks  to  the 
lanes  and  keeps  off  the  highways.  Few  men 
see,  and  fewer  know,  Van  Buren.  He  is  sly 
rather  than  bold  ;  chicanes  rather  than  assails  ; 
and  when  attacked  he  does  not  fight  in  that 
203 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

strifish  sense  of  hard  knocks.  He  poisons  the 
springs  and  streams  and  standing  water ;  and 
then  he  falls  back  into  the  hills.  Van  Buren 
does  with  snares  what  others  do  by  blows ; 
traps  while  others  hunt.  And  yet,  in  a  feline 
way,  he  likes  trouble.  Set  out  a  bowl  of  milk 
and  a  bowl  of  blood,  and  turn  your  back.  If 
sure  of  unobservation,  he  will  lap  the  blood. 
But  if  you  stare  at  him,  he  dissembles  with  the 
milk,  purring  with  fervor  sedulous.  Ever  se- 
cret, Van  Buren  knows  of  no  harder  fate  than 
mere  discovery.  His  points  of  power  are  his 
egotism,  his  skill  for  sly  effort,  his  talent  as  a 
trader  of  politics.  Marcy  is  of  another  sort. 
Marcy  is  vigorous  where  Van  Buren  is  fine. 
If  a  band  of  music  were  to  go  by,  Marcy  would 
regard  the  bass  drum  as  the  great  instrument. 
Van  Buren  would  prefer  the  piccolo.  Marcy 
does  his  war  work  with  an  axe.  When  any 
homicide  of  politics  enforces  itself  upon  Van 
Buren  he  moves  with  sack  and  bowstring.  He 
waits  until  midnight,  and  then,  with  victim 
gagged  and  bagged  and  bound,  drowns  him 
in  the  Bosphorus  of  party." 

Even  as  the  General  spoke,  Van  Buren 
was  trudging  up  the  street ;  for  it  would  appear 
that  he  had  come  into  town  the  hour  before, 
and  now  made  speed  to  pay  his  respects  to  the 
General. 

204 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

While  Van  Buren  was  in  talk  with  the 
General,  our  first  greetings  being  done,  I 
strove  to  come  by  some  true  account  of  one 
who  was  like  to  make  for  much  weight  in  the 
scales.  He  was  round,  short,  and  by  no  means 
superb  or  imposing.  Standing  between  the 
General  and  myself,  and  both  of  us  above  six 
feet,  he  seemed  something  stunted.  There 
was  a  quiet  twinkle  in  his  gray,  intelligent  eye 
that  he  drew  from  his  tavern-keeping  sire  of 
Kinderhook;  the  latter  being  of  shrewd  Dutch 
stock,  born  to  count  pennies  and  to  save  them, 
and  whose  profits  with  his  inn  found  partial 
coinage  in  an  education  above  bottles  and  tap- 
rooms for  his  son.  There  hovered  an  oily  peace 
about  Van  Buren  ;  it  showed  on  him  like  painted 
color.  I  was  not  tremendously  impressed  of 
him,  I  grant  you ;  albeit,  before  all  was  done,  I 
came  to  better  learn  him.  The  man,  fora  best 
simile,  was  like  so  much  quicksilver.  Bright 
and  of  surprising  weight,  he  rolled  away  from 
a  touch  and  never  failed  to  fit  himself  scru- 
pulously and  plausibly  into  every  inequality 
which  the  surface  he  rested  on  presented.  He 
came  to  be,  as  you  may  think,  precisely  the 
man  for  the  General;  since,  while  the  one  was 
as  apt  for  heat  as  Sahara,  and  as  much  the 
home  of  hurricanes,  the  other  under  no  stress 
was  ever  known  to  give  or  take  offence.  He 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

would  be  without  quills,  this  Van  Buren,  and 
yet  no  porcupine  in  his  rattling  armor  went 
about  more  perfect  to  his  own  defence  or  so 
equal  for  the  problem  of  his  own  security. 

Van  Buren  made  no  lengthy  stay  with  us ; 
there  was  a  hand-shake,  a  talk  of  a  moment,  a 
bow,  and  he  was  back  to  his  quarters  in  the 
Indian  Queen. 

"And  what  do  you  say  of  him?"  asked 
the  General,  when  now  his  new  secretary  was 
gone. 

"Why,  sir,"  I  replied,  "  I  should  call  your 
story  of  the  man  a  good  one.  But  he  does  not 
look  so  strong  as  you  would  make  him." 

"Why,  then,"  returned  the  General, 
"neither  does  any  other  thing  of  silk."  Then, 
after  a  pause:  "Just  as  an  insinuation  is 
stronger  than  a  direct  charge,  so  is  Van  Buren 
stronger  than  other  men.  I  warrant  you,  as 
we  stand  here  with  all  our  wisdom,  he  holds  our 
measures  more  nearly  than  we  hold  his." 

The  General,  you  are  to  observe,  and 
whether  early  or  late,  never  said  a  word  to  Van 
Buren  of  Peg  and  the  villain  forays  against  her 
fame ;  the  General  was  too  proud  for  that. 
The  defence  of  Peg  seemed  a  thing  personal 
to  his  heart;  with  him  it  owned  no  place  in 
politics  or  the  business  of  the  state.  There- 
fore, he  would  ask  no  man's  aid,  and  folk  on 
206 


THE  SECRETARY,   SUAVE   AS    CREAM 

that  quarrel   might   be   neutral   or   pick  their 
sides  and  go  what  ways  they  would. 

The  General,  I  say,  beheld  nothing  of 
politics  in  the  question  of  his  defence  of  Peg ; 
it  was  wholly  the  thing  personal.  He  never 
realized,  what  is  clear  to  you  and  me,  that 
everything  was  the  thing  personal  with  him, 
and  politics  a  thing  most  personal  of  all.  Even 
now,  since  he  had  found  the  Palmetto  coterie 
to  be  among  his  enemies,  and  within  short 
weeks  of  the  birth  of  his  first  rancor  against 
Calhoun  as  one  who  had  sought  to  do  him 
hidden  harm  while  apeing  friendship  and  aim- 
ing at  his  betrayal  with  a  kiss,  he  had  com- 
menced to  nourish  a  steady  wrath  against  that 
statesman's  policies  of  Secession  and  States 
Rights.  This  latter  he  was  cultivating  and 
feeding  in  all  possible  fashion. 

One  day  I  came  upon  him  deep  within 
Marshall's  definitions  of  treason  as  declared  in 
the  trial  of  Aaron  Burr. 

"  There's  the  law  for  you,"  he  cried,  with 
a  note  of  exultation  in  his  tone,  and  thrusting 
the  book  at  me  with  one  hand  while  with  the 
other  he  marked  the  place ;  "  there's  the  law 
of  treason  so  laid  down  that  a  wayfaring  man 
though  a  fool  should  not  err  therein.  I  shall 
get  it  pat  to  my  tongue ;  I  may  yet  teach  it  to 
our  Secessionists  with  a  gibbet." 
207 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

I  put  this  down  to  show  the  climbing  of 
the  General's  anger  against  Calhoun ;  and  how 
it  began  to  spread  and  feel  about  to  assail  the 
Vice-President  in  his  acts  and  plans  and  senti- 
ments and  hopes.  It  was,  as  he  said  aforetime, 
u  We  would  foil  the  villain  and  save  our  pretty 
Peg." 

You  may  rest  sure  I  made  no  argument 
against  his  law  studies  ;  indeed,  I  think  treason 
a  crime  which  the  White  House  can  not  un- 
derstand too  well  nor  hate  too  thoroughly,  and 
I  never  thought  so  more  than  in  those  far  days 
when  the  General  read  Marshall  and  we  car- 
ried forward  our  fight  for  lovely  Peg. 

While  the  General  spoke  no  word  of  the 
Batons  and  their  injuries  to  Van  Buren,  the 
latter  for  a  certainty  was  not  long  in  town 
before  he  thereon  held  converse  with  himself. 
I  would  be  made  wise  of  this  by  his  coming  to 
me — it  was  our  second  encounter — and,  with 
a  manner  suave  as  cream,  asking  what  to  my 
thought  would  be  a  time  fitting,  and  to  the 
lady  convenient,  for  him  to  call  upon  our  Peg. 

"  For  you  must  know,"  said  he,  spreading 
out  his  smooth  hands  and  regarding  the  backs 
of  them,  being,  I  think,  a  trick  of  his  to  cover 
an  inability  to  look  one  between  the  eyes,  "for 
you  must  know,  sir,  since  my  wife  died,  and 
with  no  daughter  in  my  house  to  teach  me, 
208 


THE    SECRETARY,    SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

my   society  learning    has   gone   excessively   to 
seed." 

It  became  my  turn  to  say  that  society,  I 
was  told — for  I  carried  no  personal  knowledge 
thereof,  having  little  genius  for  it — ran  now  to 
broken  ends  and  fragments,  and  would  con- 
tinue so  throughout  the  year.  The  social 
season,  by  word  of  such  experienced  parlor 
scouts  as  Pigeon-breast,  would  not  begin  until 
New  Year's  Day. 

"  However,"  said  I,  in  finale,  "  you  may 
take  it  from  me  that  the  Batons  will  be  blithe 
to  receive  you  on  any  evening  you  should  care 
to  call.  There  need  be  no  formality ;  you  may 
pull  their  latch-string  at  any  hour  with  every 
assurance  of  a  welcome." 

"  Can  not  you  take  me  there  this  evening?" 
he  asked,  with  a  kind  of  enthusiasm. 

"  I  am  only  too  pleased  to  be  of  service." 

The  fair  truth  is  I  could  have  hugged  the 
little  secretary  from  gladness  for  Peg. 

That  same  night,  when  later  I  paid  my 
usual  visit  to  the  General  for  a  friendly  pipe 
and  to  finish  the  day  in  smoke  before  we  went 
to  bed,  I  told  him  of  Van  Buren's  waiting  on 
Peg.  The  pleasure  the  news  gave  him  fell 
across  his  face  like  sunlight.  But  he  carried 
himself  in  ordinary  fashion. 

"Why,  sir,"  said  he,   "I'm  glad   that  he 
209 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

has  been  to  see  the  Eatons.  Still,  no  less  could 
have  been  looked  for  from  a  gentleman." 

"  But  he  did  better,"  I  said.  "  Never  have 
I  heard  more  delicate  compliment  than  he 
offered  to  Peg.  He  says  she  shall  preside  at 
his  house  for  those  functions  which  belong 
with  his  position." 

"  And  that,  since  he  has  no  wife,  will  be 
a  vast  convenience  for  him,"  responded  the 
General ;  u  this  pouring  of  his  guests'  tea  by 
our  beautiful  Peg." 

The  General  would  accept  it  as  a  matter 
of  course,  but  I  tell  you  the  tidings  of  that 
tea-pouring  warmed  the  cockles  of  his  heart. 
For  myself,  I  made  no  effort  to  hide  my  satis- 
faction. 

"  Is  it  not  a  strange  thing,"  said  the  Gen- 
eral, after  a  bit,  "  how  one's  first  impression 
will  go  astray?  Who  could  be  more  true,  or 
more  wise,  or  better  bred  or  founded  in  what- 
ever makes  for  the  best  in  a  man,  than  our 
Van  Buren  ?  And  yet  I  thought  him  sly,  and 
with  a  hand  for  seHsh  design.  The  man's  as 
simple  as  a  child  1" 

"He  tells  me,"  I  remarked,  "that  your 
friend  Hoyt  of  this  region  warned  him  you  did 
not  like  him,  and  how  your  great  favorite  was 
Calhoun." 

210 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

"  Hoyt  is  a  presumptuous  fool,"  returned 
the  General,  hotly.  "  I  would  not  give  Van 
Buren's  finger  for  Calhoun.  Why  should  he 
be  favorite  of  mine  who  foments  treason,  and 
schemes  to  split  the  nation  like  a  billet  of 
wood!" 

Peg  was  with  me  betimes  next  morning  to 
jubilate  with  dancing  pulses  over  Van  Buren 
to  her  house  the  night  before. 

"  For  can't  you  see,"  she  cried,  her  cheeks 
red  with  the  excitement  that  crowed  in  her 
breast,  "  what  a  strategic  point,  as  you  sons  of 
war  would  term  it," — Peg  was  laughing  here — 
"  is  your  little,  round,  smooth  Secretary  of 
State?  He  carries  the  grand  legation  folk  in 
his  wake.  With  them,  all  ribbons  and  orders, 
and  the  army — for  the  latter  will  be  bound  to 
us  since  we  are  the  war  department — our  recep- 
tions should  be  a  blaze  of  glory  and  gold 
braid." 

Here  Peg  clapped  her  hands  with  the  glee 
of  it.  It  was  an  inspiration  to  see  her  so  gay. 

"  I  am  overcome  of  delight,"  I  said,  mock- 
ing gravity,  "  to  know  that  we  are  like  to  gain 
so  much  of  ornamentation."  Then,  changing 
my  tone:  "But  of  a  truth,  my  little  one,  I 
shall  forever  love  our  State  Secretary  for  your 
sweet  sake." 

"You  brought  him,"  cried  Peg.     "What 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

a  watch-dog  you  are  to  me!"  This  with  sud- 
den warmth.  "That  is  the  word,  a  watch-dog 
— a  faithful  watch-dog  with  a  great  sleepless 
heart  guarding  its  Peg !  And  you  shall  have  a 
collar." 

With  that,  since  I  was  sitting  in  my  chair 
and  so  within  her  reach,  the  minx  crept  up 
and  threw  her  arms  about  my  neck.  It  was 
simply  play — the  exuberance  of  a  born  tomboy. 
And  yet  I  was  glad  we  were  alone  and  no 
General  about,  else  I  would  have  lived  long  ere 
I  had  heard  the  last  of  it.  The  situation  would 
have  fitted  like  a  glove  with  the  General's  bent 
of  humor,  and  I  should  not  have  cared  for  his 
raillery. 

Peg  clung  to  my  neck  like  a  rose  to  an  oak 
while  I  tried  softly  to  loosen  her  arms.  I  could 
not  make  head  against  her  for  fear  of  hurting 
her. 

"  How  do  you  like  your  collar,  watch- 
dog?" she  cried,  with  a  chuckle.  "And  now 
the  buckle — how  do  you  like  that?"  Here 
she  laid  her  velvet  cheek  against  my  face.  "  So, 
watch-dog,  you  would  slip  your  collar?"  This, 
banteringly.  "There;  you  are  free."  And 
Peg  unlocked  her  arms  and  stood  back  smiling, 
her  small,  white  leopard  teeth  just  showing,  and 
her  eyes  like  diamonds.  Then  donning  a  sa- 
tiric air:  "Sir,  you  call  yourself  a  gentleman 


HENRY       o       HUTT  3 


"And  you 
shall  have  a  collar. 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

and  a  politician.  You  should  know,  then,  there 
be  two  honors  no  man  may  decline  ;  the  one  is 
a  presidency  and  the  other  is  a — lady." 

With  this  smartness  on  her  lips  Peg  broke 
into  downright  merriment.  The  little  witch  was 
never  so  charming  I 

That  evening  I  was  sitting  alone  with  the 
General;  each  of  us  silent  and  within  himself, 
wrapping  his  own  fancies  about  him  like  a 
cloak.  I  know  not  on  what  uplands  of  con- 
jecture the  General's  thoughts  were  grazing  ; 
for  myself,  I  was  dwelling  on  Peg,  for  I  could 
still  feel  that  soft,  warm  collar  of  her  two  arms 
clasping  my  neck. 

It  is  trenching  on  the  wondrous,  too,  how 
the  sweet  image  of  a  woman  will  train  one's 
soul  for  war.  No  sooner  would  I  take  Peg 
upon  the  back  of  my  meditations,  than  they 
straightway  went  plunging  off  to  her  enemies, 
and  to  tire  themselves  with  vain  circlingsof  how 
best  to  refute  the  malice  of  her  foes  and  return 
upon  their  wicked  heads  the  most  of  cruelty. 
Commonly  I  might  be  held  as  one  not  beyond 
touch  of  mercy,  and  indeed  I  have  spared  a 
painted  Creek  when  he  stood  helpless.  But  I 
doubt  me  if  Peg's  foes,  when  by  some  sleight 
of  fate  they  had  fallen  within  my  power,  would 
have  found  a  least  loophole  of  relief.  Of  a 
verity!  I  think  I  might  have  looked  long  on 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

their  writhings  ere  my  heart  was  touched  or 
my  hands  raised  to  stay  their  tortures. 

While  I  sat  in  this  blood-mood,  and  shed- 
ding in  imagination  the  lives  of  ones  who  would 
persecute  our  innocent,  my  glance  was  caught 
by  the  General's  pistols  lying  near  by  on  a 
table.  They  were  of  that  long,  duelling  breed 
belonging  with  the  times,  and  the  General  kept 
them  as  bright  and  new  as  he  kept  his  honor. 

"  And  why  are  those  on  parade  ?"  I  asked, 
pointing  to  the  weapons. 

"  It  is  the  day  of  the  year,"  said  the  Gen- 
eral, and  his  steady  voice  was  low,  "  whereon  I 
killed  Dickenson.  This  is  the  one  I  used,"  and 
he  stretched  his  long  arm  and  offered  it  for  my 
inspection.  It  had  a  ribbon  of  black  about  the 
butt.  "  That  is  not  for  Dickenson,"  he  ex- 
plained;  "it  is  for  her."  Here  he  indicated 
that  miniature  of  his  wife  from  which  he  would 
never  be  parted,  where  it  rested  on  the  mantel 
and  looked  down  upon  us  with  the  painted 
eyes. 

"  You  speak  in  a  queer  way,"  I  said ;  "  do 
you  regret  killing  the  man?" 

"No,"  he  returned,  half  sadly;  "I  do  not 
regret  killing  him." 

"Tell  me  of  it,"  I  urged.  "I  was  not 
about,  and  Overton  went  with  you  to  the  field." 
214 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

The  General  never  named  his  fight  with 
Dickenson  to  others,  but  I  was  sure  he  would 
tell  the  tale  to  me.  In  good  truth,  I  had  not 
asked  for  it,  save  that,  knowing  him  far  better 
than  I  knew  myself,  I  saw  what  was  in  his  man- 
ner to  make  me  believe  he  would  be  the  lighter 
after  the  relation. 

"  Dickenson,"  said  the  General,  making  no 
flourish  of  talk  in  explanation  of  a  readiness  to 
describe  adventures  which  some  folk  for  the 
red  ending  might  have  shrunk  from ;  "  Dick- 
enson was  the  tool  of  a  conspiracy  made 
against  my  life,  and  politics  was  at  the  bottom 
of  it.  I  was  too  popular ;  I  was  in  the  way ; 
the  grave  was  a  place  for  me ;  thus  argued  my 
enemies.  And  then  they  went  about  to  draw 
in  Dickenson  to  be  their  cat's-paw. 

"  Dickenson  was  young  and  vain,  and  withal 
willingly  cruel  enough  to  act  as  my  murderer  for 
the  illustration  it  would  bring.  He  counted 
himself  safe,  since  he  was  reckoned  the  surest, 
quickest  hand  in  all  the  world.  The  man  could 
shoot  from  the  hip  like  a  flash,  and  as  accu- 
rately as  one  might  put  one's  finger. 

"  Once  the  plan  was  laid,  Dickenson  took 
a  sure  course;  he  spoke  evil  of  my  wife." 
Here  the  General  picked  up  the  two  pistols,  a 
butt  in  either  hand,  and  looked  first  upon  the 
one  and  then  upon  its  fellow.  "Following  my 
215 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

marriage,  with  every  dollar  I  owned,  I  bought 
these  pistols.  They  are  hair-triggers  and 
a  breath  unhooks  them.  Also,  they  are 
sighted  to  shoot  as  fine  and  as  true  as  the 
moral  law.  I  gave  to  their  purchase  my  last 
dollar,  and  devoted  them  to  the  destruction  of 
what  scoundrels  should  vilify  my  wife.  They 
have  done  their  work  and  never  failed  me. 

"  Overton  was  to  act  my  second,  and  we 
would  fight  in  Kentucky,  sixty  miles  away.  All 
day  we  traveled  ;  the  Dickenson  party  preceded 
us  over  the  same  trail.  At  every  squatter's 
cabin  the  inmates  would  call  us  to  the  wizard 
work  of  Dickenson.  Here  he  shot  the  head 
from  a  fowl ;  there  he  cut  the  string  by  which 
a  gourd  was  hanging ;  now  he  drove  a  nail 
at  twenty  paces.  It  was  a  trick  to  shake  my 
nerve. 

"We  would  fight  in  the  early  morning, 
each  standing  to  a  peg  twelve  paces  apart. 
Overton  won  the  word  and  the  pistols.  I  was 
dressed  in  a  black  coat,  loose  and  long,  and 
with  no  white  to  show  at  the  throat  and  coax  a 
bullet.  We  were  given  our  places,  I  to  my  joy 
with  my  favorite  pistol. 

"  It  was  conceded  by  Overton  and  myself, 
as  we  went  up  and  down  the  business  in  ad- 
vance, that  Dickenson  would  kill  me.  Our 
216 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

hope  was  that  I'd  last  long  enough  to  kill  him 
— he,  the  defamer  of  my  wife  ! 

"  The  thought  on  our  side  was  for  me  to 
brace  myself  and  take  Dickenson's  fire.  I 
could  not  rival  him  for  quickness  or  for  sure- 
ness.  And  the  haste  of  an  attempt  would 
waste  and  throw  away  my  aim. 

"We  were  put  up,  I  say;  the  words  were 
to  be  '  Fire — one — two — three — stop  !'  We 
might  fire  at  any  moment  between  'Fire!'  and 
1  Stop !'  And  Overton  had  the  word.  As  I 
took  my  place  I  slipped  a  bullet  into  my 
mouth.  I  would  set  my  teeth  on  it  to  steady 
my  hand. 

"  Overton  cried  the  word  and  began  the 
count.  With  the  word  '  Fire !'  Dickenson's 
weapon  flashed.  I  heard  the  roar  of  it,  and 
felt  the  numb,  dull  shock  as  the  lead  crashed 
into  my  side.  But  I  sustained  myself.  I  was 
held  on  my  feet  by  hate.  I  thought  he  had 
slain  me,  but  with  him  out  of  hell  I  would  not 
rest  in  my  grave. 

"When  I  did  not  fall,  but  stood  firm, 
Dickenson  started  back. 

'"  My  God,  I  have  missed  him!'  he  cried. 

"  '  Step  to  your  peg,  sir,'  roared  Overton, 
pausing  in  his  count  and  cocking  a  pistol; 
'  step  to  your  peg,  or  I'll  blow  your  head  from 
your  body!' 

217 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  Dickenson  stood  again  to  his  peg  and 
turned  his  eyes  from  me ;  his  face  was  the 
color  of  tobacco  ashes. 

"  Overton  resumed  his  count.     '  One  !' 

" '  Click !'     My  pistol  caught  at  half-cock. 

"  Overton  paused  and  I  re-cocked  my 
pistol;  Dickenson  white  and  firm  to  his  peg — 
a  man  who  had  played  his  life  away. 

"  '  Two  !'  cried  Overton. 

"  My  pistol  responded ;  the  lead  tore  its 
way  through  the  midst  of  Dickenson's  body. 
He  crippled  slowly  down  on  one  knee ;  and 
then  he  fell  along  on  his  face,  and  next  turned 
over  on  his  back  with  a  sort  of  twitching  jerk. 
I  never  took  my  eyes  from  him." 

"And  your  wound, "said  I,  "was  a  serious 
one,  I  well  know  that." 

"  My  ribs  were  broken,  while  my  boot 
was  clogged  with  the  blood  which  ran  down 
beneath  my  garments.  The  bullet  I  placed 
between  my  teeth  was  crushed  as  flat  as  a  two- 
bit  piece." 

"  It  was  hardy  work,"  said  I,  "  bearing  up 
and  firing  on  the  heels  of  such  a  wound." 

"  Sir,  I  was  thinking  on  her  " — glancing 
at  the  miniature.  "  I  should  have  killed  that 
man  though  he  had  put  his  bullet  through  my 
heart." 

Here  the  General  turned  his  face  towards 
218 


THE  SECRETARY,   SUAVE   AS    CREAM 

me ;  his  eyes  were  shining  with  the  lambent 
orange  glow  one  sees  in  the  panther's  eyes  at 
night. 

There  was  silence,  I  still  looking  on  the 
General.  His  nervous  face  was  twitching. 
Then  the  frown  on  his  forehead  gave  way  to 
quiet  sadness.  Rising,  he  stood  by  the  mantel 
and  gazed  for  long,  and  tenderly,  on  the  min- 
iature of  his  dead  dear  one. 

u  I  have  had  many  titles,"  said  he,  and  he 
spoke  whisperingly  and  as  though  talking  with 
the  picture ;  "  I  have  had  many  titles,  and  the 
greatest  was  the  one  '  her  husband.'  I  have 
had  honors; — I  stand  the  chief  of  the  greatest 
nation  in  the  greatest  age  the  world  has  wit- 
nessed ;  and  I  would  give  all  to  hold  her  hand 
one  moment.  They  say  there  is  a  heaven 
above  us.  It  will  be  no  heaven  unless  I  meet 
her  there." 

Now  while  I  was  in  warmest  sympathy 
with  the  General,  his  talk  would  seem  to  fill  me 
up  with  darkness.  Also,  I  could  feel  the  two 
hot  arms  of  Peg  burning  my  neck.  That 
story,  too,  of  the  Dickenson  fight  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  set  in  my  nature  that  animal 
which  lairs  within  each  of  us,  somewhat  on 
truculent  edge.  Abruptly  I  burst  forth : 

"  And  it  is  a  surprising  thing,"  cried  I — 
ripping  out  an  oath,  the  last  not  common  with 
219 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

me — "  how  Eaton  abides  Peg's  wrongs.  He 
should  have  killed  a  man  or  two  by  now." 

"  Sir,"  returned  the  General,  coming  from 
his  reverie  with  a  kind  of  snap,  "  sir,  no  man 
since  Catron  has  been  known  to  speak  a  word. 
Besides,  my  cabinet  men  can  not  go  trooping 
off  for  Blandensburg  at  any  price.  It  is  one  of 
the  drawbacks  to  a  high  position  of  state  that 
it  chops  one's  hands  off  at  the  elbow;  duels 
are  no  longer  a  question." 

"I  do  not  see  it  thus, "I  retorted  viciously. 

"You  do  not?  Look  on  Aaron  Burr — 
deserted  and  old  and  poor,  and  dying  in  New 
York.  He  came  down  from  his  vice-presi- 
dency to  slay  one  who  had  maligned  him  for 
years.  And  there  is  his  reward." 

"What  do  I  care  for  that?"  cried  I.  "If 
it  were  for  Peg,  I  should  leave  a  throne  and 
perish  poor,  despised  and  all  alone,  but  I 
would  strangle  the  throat  that  spoke  her 
wrong." 

"Ah!  if  it  were  Peg!"  And  the  General, 
now  alert  and  wholly  of  this  world,  gave  me 
that  narrow  intent  glance  I  resented  among  the 
flowers. 

What  might  have  been  uttered  next  was 
cut  short  by  a  messenger  on  the  door.  He 
brought  word  from  Noah  ;  he  had  just  come 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

to  town,  and  since  it  was  turned  late  he  would 
defer  his  call  until  the  morning. 

"  Let's  have  him  with  us  now,"  cried  the 
General, briskly.  "  I  shall  not  sleep  for  hours; 
and  iyou,  I  take  it,  will  stay  awake  in  such  a 
cause?" 

"  I  would  stand  sleepless  guard  for  weeks 
if  it  were  to  defend  Peg,"  said  I. 

"Think  now  and  then,  my  friend,  for  your 
own  defence."  The  General  said  this  with  a 
look  both  quizzical  and  grave.  Then,  without 
pausing:  "  Write  Noah  a  note  in  my  name." 
While  I  scribbled  he  walked  to  and  fro.  "I 
must  ever  ask  you  to  write  for  me,  since  I 
am  so  unfortunate  as  to  deny  a  proverb  and  be 
one  whose  sword  was  ever  mightier  than  his 
pen." 

In  the  hall  I  discovered  Jim,  and  told  him 
to  depart  with  our  message  to  the  Indian 
Queen. 

"  'Course  I'll  nacherally  go,  Marse  Major," 
said  Jim,  "  but  I  was  jes'  waitin'  to  see  you-all, 
an'  ask  how  soon  you  reckons  we'll  go  caperin' 
back  to  Tennessee." 

"  Why,"  I  demanded,  "  what  has  made  you 
so  soon  homesick?" 

11  It  aint  that,  Marse  Major,"  and  Jim  gave 
to  his  words  a  melancholy  whine,  "  but  we-all 
can't  stand  d'pace  yere.  For  a  week  Jim  was 

221 


P.EGGY  O          NEAL 

as  happy  an'  chirpy  as  a  drunkard  at  a  barbe- 
cue. But  since  you  locks  that  closet  do',  Jim's 
sort  o'  been  obleeged  to  buy  whiskey  for  him- 
se'f ;  an'  what  you  think  ?  They  charge  Jim  five 
cents  a  drink  for  whiskey  that  don't  cost  two 
bits  a  gallon  all  along  d'Cumberland !  They's 
shorely  robbers;  an' they  jes'  nacherally  takes 
Jim's  money  off  him  so  fas'  he  cotch  cold." 

"  Go  on,  you  rogue !"  said  I.  "  Here  is  a 
Mexican  dollar  to  bolster  your  finances. 
We're  not  yet  bankrupt,  Jim." 

Noah  came  to  us  spattered  of  travel,  and 
with  the  high  riding-boots  he  wore  on  the  road. 
I  took  a  deal  of  pleasure  for  a  buoyancy  I  ob- 
served in  him,  since  I  read  it  as  a  sign  of  whitest 
promise.  Nor  was  I  to  be  cast  down  from  that 
hope. 

"  You  are  to  know,"  said  Noah,  turning 
to  the  General,  "  that  I  was  two  days  before 
your  letter  with  the  Reverend  Ely.  In  the  first 
of  our  conversations  he  held  his  head  loftily; 
in  the  end,  he  came  something  under  control. 
Your  letter  much  dismayed  him,  and  after  that 
his  courage  ran  very  thin  indeed.  Now  he  quite 
agrees  he  knew  nothing,  and  was  wrong  and  false 
in  all  he  wrote.  I  dragged  him  to  New  York  with 
me.  I  have  Mrs.  Eaton's  innocence  here,  in 
these  papers."  Noah  laid  a  sealed  package  by 
the  General's  elbow.  They  were  from  the  Rev- 

222 


THE    SECRETARY,   SUAVE    AS    CREAM 

erend  Ely,  as  well  as  from  the  folk  of  the  hotel 
wherein  that  Ely  said  Peg  lodged.  u  They  are 
oath-made  ;  they  prcve  Mrs.  Eaten  chaste  as 
snow." 

"And  how  did  you  make  conquest  of  this 
Ely?"  questioned  the  General,  his  eye  grati- 
fied and  spirit  a  mate  for  Noah's. 

"The  power  of  the  press,  I  should  call  it," 
laughed  Noah.  "The  ignoble  Ely  hath  a  mighty 
distaste  of  unfriendly  ink.  And  I'm  an  editor. 
That  was  it,"  went  on  Noah ;  "  I  showed  him 
what  might  be  done.  He  should  stand  in  the 
pillory  of  my  types  for  the  reasonless  defamer 
he  was.  Then  the  dog  trembled  and  came  my 
way  with  meekness,  asking  what  he  should  do. 
I  answered  much  like  the  monks  with  the  wild 
Clovis,  '  Bend  thy  neck,  proud  Sicambrian ; 
adore  what  thou  hast  burned,  burn  what  thou 
hast  adored !'  In  short,  I  demanded  a  letter  of 
retractory  amends  to  the  President ;  and  also 
that  he  name  his  fellow  reptile,  whose  infamous 
word  he  claimed  for  the  truth  of  his  scurrility." 

"And  who  is  he?"  demanded  the  Gen- 
eral, as  warm  as  ever  I  saw  him. 

By  some  virtue  of  telepathic  sort,  I  read 
the  answer  before  Noah  uttered  it.  And  why 
had  I  not  guessed  before  1  The  secret  one  so 
falsely  in  the  ear  of  the  shallow  Ely  was  none 
other  than  the  unctious  Reverend  Campbell. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   MAD   CAPRICIOUS   PEG 

Next  morning  the  sun  had  not  climbed 
over-high  when  the  Reverend  Campbell,  head 
down  and  secret  eye  aslant,  came  shuffling  to 
call  upon  the  General.  I  caught  the  black 
shadow  of  him — for  all  the  world  like  the 
shadow  of  some  vulture  to  sail  between  one 
and  the  sun — as  the  drooping,  furtive  creature 
sidled  through  the  hall.  The  General  had  sent 
for  him,  for  the  General  was  not  one  to  let  the 
grass  grow  deep  between  resolve  and  action. 

"  I  will  see  the  man  alone,  Major,"  ob- 
served the  General;  "he  might  complain,  were 
you  present,  of  a  situation  offering  two  against 
one  and  planned  to  over-ride  him." 

Such  management  was  much  to  my  appe- 
tite, since  it  would  but  serve  to  boil  my  anger 
— this  listening  while  the  Reverend  Rogue  laid 
out  his  pack  of  calumnies  upon  Peg.  In  good 
truth!  I  much  misdoubt  if  I  had  withstood  my 
hands  from  him  when  under  such  honest  pro- 
vocation; and  that,  maugre  his  black  surtout 
and  pulpit  snuffle. 

224 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

And  yet  it  did  not  miss  me  as  a  feature 
hard  to  be  read  for  its  significance,  that  now 
was  the  earliest  time  when  the  General  had 
shown  himself  so  equitable  as  to  think  on  "  two 
against  one  "  and  fail  to  ask  my  presence  for 
his  conferences.  He  had  met  folk  for  war  and 
peace,  and  they  had  come  alone ;  I  had  been 
there,  and  no  one  spoke  of  over-riding.  How- 
ever, the  subject  was  not  worth  quizzing  one's 
self  concerning;  the  Reverend  Campbell  was 
come,  the  best  thing  about  it  being  that  the 
General  lived  ample  and  to  spare  to  arrest 
whatever  of  slander  he  should  bring  us  in  his 
mouth,  and  put  it  to  the  death.  The  General 
could  track  a  lie  as  surely  as  ever  he  tracked 
Creek,  and  lived  even  more  inveterately  its 
enemy. 

Peg  met  the  Reverend  Campbell  almost  in 
the  great  front  door,  for  she  was  on  her  usual 
journey  to  consult  with  me  about  some  trifling 
nothing.  When  his  sidelong  glance  encoun- 
tered Peg's,  the  rascal  cowered  and  seemed  to 
turn  more  mean,  if  that  were  possible,  than  by 
nature  belonged  with  him.  But  he  said  no 
word ;  he  did  not  so  much  as  muster  against 
her  one  square  look,  but  sinuously,  and  as  a 
snake  might,  writhed  himself  out  of  her  path 
Peg,  for  herself,  swept  him  with  a  chill,  inr^ 
225 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

erant  eye  as  if  he  were  some  gutter-being, 
offensive  though  unknown. 

"And  what  brings  that  bird  of  mal-omen 
to  flutter  about  one's  door? — so  bright  a  morn- 
ing, too  I"  This  was  Peg's  question  on  the 
Reverend  Campbell  as  she  walked  in  to  me 
and  climbed  to  her  customary  chair  at  the  left 
hand  of  my  desk.  "What  should  you  say, 
watch-dog,  was  his  bad  mission?  Is  he  a 
threat?  Does  he  drag  a  danger  after  him? 
You  must  be  alert  if  you  would  make  safe  your 
little  Peg." 

The  tone  of  raillery  which  Peg  adopted  se- 
cured me ;  she  had  no  surmise,  then,  to  the 
purpose  of  the  Reverend  Campbell. 

"  It's  quite  sure,"  I  returned,  evasively, 
"  that  our  swart  visitor  would  be  much  uplifted 
were  the  General  to  relent  and  dispose  of 
Florida  according  to  his  wish." 

And  now  while  Peg  sits  before  the  mirror 
of  my  memory  with  her  sweet  face,  as  she  on 
that  far  morning  sat  in  the  great  leathern  chair, 
let  me  please  my  fond  pencil  with  a  word  of 
her.  There  were  so  many  expressions  of  the 
unexpected  to  our  Peg — for  so  I  had  grown  to 
call  her — one  must  needs  be  describing  and 
redescribing  her  with  each  new  page  one  turns. 
A  born  enchantress  and  a  witch  full-blown  be- 
926 


THE     MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

sides !  it  is  the  mere  truth  that  Peg  bore 
upon  me  like  a  spell. 

There  was  never  woman  to  be  Peg's  mar- 
row for  flash  and  spirit,  and  beyond  all  to 
creep  so  tenderly  near  to  one.  And  for  a 
crown  to  that,  she  was  as  wise  as  the  serpent. 
There  were  moments  when  Socrates  himself 
might  have  listened  to  her  and  not  lost  his 
time. 

And  she  could  shift  color  like  a  chameleon. 
Behold  her  on  some  day  of  social  parade,  or 
where  she  meets  strangers  or  half  acquaint- 
ances, and  she  will  be  older  by  fifteen  years 
than  now  when  she  plants  her  small  self  in  that 
armchair,  and  makes  me  turn  my  writing  down- 
ward to  talk  with  her.  Tender,  wilful,  pliant, 
wise,  patient,  petulant,  true,  uncertain,  sure, 
confiding  and  confusing,  she  offered  contradic- 
tions equal  with  the  General.  I  would  exhaust 
the  roll-call  of  the  adjectives  were  I  wholly  to 
set  forth  this  child-woman  in  the  last  of  her 
frank  arts  and  sage  simplicities. 

Peg  wore  as  many  moods  as  a  lake  on  a 
flawy  day  and  where  skies  are  scud-swept. 
Now,  with  a  cloud  across  the  sun,  she  would 
be  dull  and  sad  as  lead.  Then,  with  a  gust  of 
wind,  she  would  wrinkle  into  waves  of  temper. 
And  next  there  would  dawn  a  tranquil  moment 
227 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

when,  calm  and  clear  and  deep  and  sweet,  she 
shone  on  one  like  burnished  silver. 

Once,  I  recall,  she  sat  in  her  big  chair, 
steeped  in  a  way  of  pensive  wordlessness.  I 
had  not  heard  her  voice  for  an  hour ;  nor  she 
mine,  for  I  was  fallen  behind  in  my  letters,  and 
politics  and  president-making  are  mighty  glut- 
tons of  ink.  Suddenly  she  broke  in : 

"  Why  are  you  so  good  to  me — so  much 
more  than  any  other?" 

"  How  should  one  fail  of  sympathy,"  said 
I,  giving  my  manner  a  light  turn,  "  for  another 
so  innocent  and  so  ill-used?" 

"And  it's  just  sympathy — all  sympathy?" 
demanded  Peg,  resting  her  round  chin  in  her 
little  shell  of  a  palm.  "  Nothing  but  sym- 
pathy?" 

"What  else  should  it  be?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Peg,  shortly.  Then 
she  walked  slowly  across  the  room  and  studied 
a  picture.  In  a  moment  she  gave  a  word  to  me 
over  her  shoulder  :  "  I  may  tell  you  this,  Mr. 
Questioner.  There  is  but  one  question  a  man 
should  put  to  a  woman." 

Smiling  on  her  jaunty  petulances,  I  went 
forward  with  my  writing  ;  she  to  pulling  out 
the  slides  of  a  cabinet.  This  apartment,  I 
should  tell  you,  was  my  private  workshop  of 
politics  wherein  I  repaired  and  extended  the 
228 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

destinies  of  the  General,  and  transacted  his 
fame  for  him.  There  were  a  world  of  history 
and  one  president — and  say  the  least  of  it — 
constructed  in  that  room. 

Peg  came  presently  to  my  elbow,  bringing 
a  trinket  of  coral.  It  had  been  my  sister's,  and 
was  my  mother's  before  that. 

"  Is  it  worth  much  money?"  asked  Peg. 

"  Nothing  at  all,"  I  returned. 

"And  yet  you  value  it  highly?" 

"Very  highly." 

"May  I  have  it?" 

It  seemed  shame  to  hesitate,  and  yet  I  did, 
while  Peg  stood  with  wistful  face. 

"Why,"  said  I  at  last,  "  I  meant  it  for  the 
one  I  should  love." 

"  Oh,  you  meant  it  for  her  whom  you  would 
love !  And  do  you  look  to  see  it  again  after 
that  ?  The  coral  is  mine  from  this  moment." 

With  a  swish  of  her  skirts  Peg  was  gone; 
and  with  her  went  the  coral. 

Peg  betimes  would  lay  out  her  campaign 
for  the  coming  winter.  It  was  then  she  talked 
of  Van  Buren,  "  the  good  little  secretary,"  as 
Peg  named  him.  Van  Buren  went  often  to  the 
Eatons ;  and  on  each  of  those  kind  excursions 
he  climbed  ever  higher  with  the  General  and 
with  me. 

"  Not  only,"  said  Peg,  assuming  a  wise 
229 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

pucker  of  the  brow  as  she  recounted  how  she 
should  wage  and  win  her  social  war,  "  not  only 
shall  I  preside  for  our  good  little  secretary  at 
dinners  and  receptions,  but  he  has  brought  to 
me  the  Viscount  Vaughn,  who  is  minister  for 
the  English,  and  Baron  Krudener,  who  is  here, 
as  you  know,  for  the  Russians  ;  and  they,  since 
they  own  no  wives  to  help  them,  also  have  be- 
sought me  to  be  at  the  head  of  their  legation 
functions.  And  with  the  White  House  back 
of  all,  what  then  will  Mrs.  Calhoun  and  her 
followers  do  I  Watch-dog  we  have  them  routed  1" 
Here  Peg's  rich  laugh  would  ring  out  for  vic- 
tory on  its  way. 

Peg,  on  another  day,  would  shake  her 
head  with  soft  solemnity. 

"I  do  so  wish  some  one  watched  over  me." 
Peg  spoke  in  contemplative  earnestness.  "  If  I 
could  find  a  fault  in  a  best  of  husbands,  it  must 
be  that  he  doesn't  watch  over  me." 

"  What  idleness  now  claims  your  tongue?" 
said  I,  impatiently.  "  Was  ever  such  nonsense 
uttered  I  And  the  wives  should  all  turn  ospreys, 
too,  I  take  it,  and  haunt  the  upper  air  to  watch 
their  husbands?" 

"No,"  returned  Peg,  demurely  reading  the 

carpet,   "no;    a  wife  should  never   watch    her 

husband.     What  should  you  think  of  her  who, 

dwelling  in  a  garden — a  measureless  garden  of 

230 


THE      MAD     CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

roses — went  ever  about  with  petticoats  tucked 
up,  stick  in  hand,  questing  for  some  serpent? 
Who  is  she,  to  be  so  daft  as  to  refuse  the  fra- 
grance of  a  thousand  blossoms  to  find  one 
serpent  and  be  stung  by  it?"  Peg  crowed 
high  and  long,  deeming  herself  a  princess  of 
chop-logic.  "  But  a  man  should  watch  a 
woman,"  she  concluded  ;  "  the  woman  wants 
him  to." 

"  And  why?"  said  I,  becoming  curious. 

"  Because  she  likes  to  feel  herself  tethered 
by  his  vigilance." 

11  But  why?"  I  insisted.  "  Is  not  freedom 
dear  to  a  woman?" 

u  Yes,  but  love  is  more  dear.  See  what  she 
gains  when  she  barters  only  a  little  freedom  for 
a  world  of  love." 

"  I  had  not  thought  a  woman  set  such 
store  by  jealousy — the  green  eye  turned  against 
herself." 

"  Jealousy — a  man's  jealousy  is  but  the 
counterpart  of  his  love."  Peg  lifted  her  clever 
head  oracularly.  "And,  watch-dog,  that  reminds 
me  " — here  she  admonished  me  with  upraised 
finger — "  you  are  jealous  of  me  1  Yes  you  are  ; 
you  are  jealous  of  my  husband." 

"You  are  a  confusing  form  of  little  girl!" 
I  said,  laughing  in  my  turn;  "and  most  confus- 
ing when  you  jest." 

231 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"Yes;  when  I  jest."  This  in  a  way  of 
funny  dryness.  "  Especially,  when  I  jest.  Still, 
you  are  jealous ;  you  watch  me  all  the  time. 
Do  not  look  frightened ;  I  do  not  object  to 
jealousy."  Peg  finished  in  a  mirthful  ripple. 

"  I  would  not  see  you  walk  into  harm," 
said  I,  meekly. 

Perhaps  I  was  thus  meek  because  the  small 
hectorer  would  stir  up  confusion  in  my  bosom ; 
and  she,  cool,  assured,  mistress  of  situations  it 
was  her  merry  humor  to  create. 

"  You  would  not  see  me  walk  into  harm," 
she  repeated.  "  But  you  are  jealous  of  my 
husband.  Is  my  husband  '  harm  ?' ' 

"  Do  you  not  complain  for  that  he  does 
not  watch  you  ?" 

This  I  said  desperately.  It  is  not  a  hand's- 
breadth  behind  a  miracle  how  a  girl — and  you 
a  steady  man  of  years,  and  twice  her  age — will 
wrap  you  in  perplexities  like  a  parcel.  It  was 
so  with  me ;  the  witch  would  wind  and  unwind 
me  as  though  I  were  a  ball  of  knitting-yarn ! 
She  would  darn  and  patch  her  laughter  with 
mel 

"  Watch-dog,"  said  Peg,  severely,  "watch- 
dog, you  know  you  are  jealous  !  And  how 
long  do  you  count  it  since  I  told  you  that 
jealously  was  but  love  turned  upside  down?" 
This  came  off  trippingly,  and  with  superior 
232 


THE      MAD     CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

wave  of  wrist,  as  settling  a  thing  beyond 
debate.  Then  with  a  tinge  of  tenderness: 
"  Watch-dog,  being  so  trusted,  what  would  you 
do  for  me  ?" 

"  I  would  be  a  slave  for  you,"  said  I, 
simply  enough,  "  if  it  were  to  do  you  good." 

"  Qualification,"  cried  she,  with  a  vicious 
stamp  of  her  foot,  "always  qualification!" 
Then  mimicking  me :  "  '  If  it  were  to  do  me 
good.'  Good  ! — good  ! — what  a  desert  of  wea- 
riness in  four  letters  I  If  I  were  to  discover 
some  unnamed  desolation,  some  barren  waste, 
one  arid,  gray,  dry,  dead — especially  dead — 
I'd  turn  geographer  and  call  it  'Good.' ' 

Peg  was-  quiet  after  this  upheaval,  which 
was  with  it  all  but  a  surface  impatience  and 
nothing  deep,  and  uttering  never  a  word,  gazed 
over  against  the  wall.  On  my  side,  I  made  no 
return ;  for  I  was  grown  used  to  her  whims, 
and  knew  they  were  not  to  be  argued  with. 
And  most  fatal  of  all  was  agreement.  A  best 
course  would  be  to  reply  nothing,  whether  of 
denial  or  comment  or  endorsement,  but  let  Peg 
talk  her  talk  out  unrestrained. 

However,  catching  the  fashion  of  her  with 

the  fringe  of  my  eye  as  I  went  for  more  ink  on 

my  pen,  and  observing  her  face  to  seem  over 

sad  and  considerate,  I  spoke  up  to  cheer  her. 

233 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

"And  now  what  are  your  thoughts?" 
said  I. 

"  I  was  just  wanting  to  be  a  man,  that's 
all."  And  Peg  stared  straight  ahead  as  though 
in  a  muse.  Then  starting  up,  and  with  a  rush 
of  vivacity:  "Heigh  ho!  and  now  if  I  were, 
I'll  wager  I'd  be  as  dull  as  the  others — as  dull 
as  you,  watch-dog."  Then,  changing  the  tune 
of  it,  but  keeping  to  her  dash  and  fling  :  "  So 
you  would  be  my  slave !  Come,  let  me  mark 
you  for  my  slave  !" 

Without  warning,  she  seized  my  hand,  and 
with  her  sharp  leopard  teeth  bit  until  the  blood 
flowed.  Then  surveying  her  work,  she  kissed 
the  pin-prick  of  a  wound  with  unction.  When 
she  raised  her  face,  there  was  a  trickle  of  blood 
on  her  lip  and  chin. 

Walking  to  a  mirror  with  a  careless,  fling- 
ing step,  Peg  glanced  her  face  over,  and  I 
thought  with  relish. 

"  See  if  there  do  not  come  a  pretty  white 
mark  when  it  heals."  This  she  told  me  in  an 
arch  manner,  and  with  chin  on  shoulder,  and 
the  fleck  of  blood  on  her  chin.  "  Now  if  I  but 
dared,"  she  went  on,  returning  to  the  glass,  "  I 
would  wear  that  blood  always  and  never  wash 
it  away.  But  the  world  I  the  world  I — ah,  the 
world !  One  must  wash  one's  face  for  the 
Vorld  although  one  owes  the  world  nothing." 
234 


THE     MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

Peg,  now  in  a  climax  of  bubbling  spirits, 
and  pouring  a  spoonful  of  water  on  her  hand- 
kerchief, washed  off  the  spots  of  red,  transfer- 
ring them  to  her  tiny  square  of  cambric.  This 
she  contemplated  with  a  sort  of  surprised  de- 
light, as  tendering  a  new  idea. 

"I  need  never  wash  that,  at  any  rate,"  said 
she.  Then  with  her  glancing  eyes  on  me  :  "  You 
will  wear  my  mark  now ; — Peg's  mark  for  her 
slave ! — who  would  do  her  good." 

The  next  moment  she  went  singing  across 
the  lawn  for  her  home,  leaving  me  to  think  on 
the  caprices  of  our  radiant,  reckless,  blooming, 
madcap  Peg.  All  this  by  the  way,  however; 
now  to  return  to  our  day  of  the  Reverend 
Campbell's  call  upon  the  General. 

Peg  was  still  curled  in  her  big  armchair 
when,  following  his  interview  with  the  General, 
the  Reverend  Campbell  left  the  mansion.  It 
was  she  who  told  his  departure  to  me  where  I 
wrought  at  my  desk.  Peg  caught  a  flutter  of 
him  through  the  large  window. 

"Oh!"  cried  Peg,  "there  goes  our  Rev- 
erend Raven." 

Looking  up  from  where  I  worked,  I  beheld 
the  Reverend  Campbell  making  speed  out  of 
the  grounds.  In  such  hurry  was  he  that  he  left 
the  walk  of  gravel,  and  to  save  a  corner  would 
cut  across  the  grass.  The  black-foot  creature 
235 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

slouched  away  for  all  mankind  like  unto  some 
henroost  fox  of  the  night  whom  daylight  had 
surprised  and  who  now  went  skulking  for  the 
comforting  safe  darkness  of  his  burrow. 

"  It  is  wonder,"  said  Peg,  "  what  could  in- 
duce the  good  General  to  tolerate  the  presence 
of  our  Reverend  Raven  for  so  long.  What 
should  be  the  interest  in  his  croakings?" 

As  Peg  spoke,  the  General's  gaunt  form 
appeared  in  the  door.  He  was  more  than  half 
warm  with  an  angry  excitement.  Without  pause 
or  first  words  of  greeting,  he  addressed  him- 
self to  Peg. 

"  Child,  where  was  Timberlake  two  years 
ago  this  summer? — where  was  he  in  June?" 

"Here  in  Washington,"  returned  Peg,  her 
eyes  full  of  wonder,  as  she  scanned  the  face  of 
the  General  in  quest  of  a  clue  to  his  sharp,  un- 
usual curiosity.  "  He  stayed  here  idle  for  four 
years  before  he  last  sailed.  He  was  seeking  to 
adjust  his  accounts  as  purser  for  the  frigate 
President.  His  books  were  lost  when  the  En- 
glish captured  the  ship.  It  was  that  to  make 
all  the  trouble ;  the  red-tape  of  the  navy  office 
detained  him  here  four  years  before  it  would 
accept  his  accounts.  It  was  during  that  period 
we  were  wed."  Peg's  voice,  brisk  at  the  start, 
fell  sorrowfully  away  towards  the  end. 

"  Then  he  was  here  in  June  two  summers 
236 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS     PEG 

ago,"  said  the  General,  u  and  for  three  years 
prior  and  almost  one  year  after  that  time?" 

"Yes,"  said  Peg. 

"  Now  there  !"  cried  the  General,  with  a 
mixture  of  wrath  and  disgust;  "  see  what  bald 
and  easily  confuted  falsehood  a  fool  moved  of 
low  malice  will  tell!  I  could  believe  at  times, 
when  I'm  brought  face  to  face  with  such  men- 
dacious simplicity,  that  liars  are  denied  powers 
of  reflection." 

"What  is  it  all  about?"  asked  Peg. 

"Nothing,  child,  nothing,"  returned  the 
General.  "  Now  run  away  home ;  I  want  a 
word  with  your  big  playmate  here."  Then  in 
a  softer  manner:  "  No,  child,  the  Major  and  I 
are  trying  to  do  you  a  service,  and  please  God ! 
I  think  we  shall  accomplish  it." 

The  whole  kind  attitude  of  the  General 
towards  Peg  seemed  ever  that  of  a  father,  and 
he  was  used  to  call  her  to  him  or  dismiss  her 
with  no  shade  of  rudeness,  truly,  and  yet  with 
no  more  of  ceremonies  than  an  affectionate 
parent  might  adopt.  Peg  never  grudged  obe- 
dience, and  received  the  General's  word  as 
readily,  and  was  withal  as  free  of  affront  at  any 
suddenness,  as  should  be  a  daughter  who  feels 
her  place  assured. 

When  Peg  was  off  for  home,  the  General 
came  and  sat  in  the  chair  she  had  vacated. 
237 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

With  the  white  thick  brush  of  his  end-wise  hair, 
and  the  fierce  eyes  of  him,  he  made  a  portrait 
wide  apart  from  that  tender  one  the  great  chair 
so  lately  framed. 

"  You  are  not  to  know,"  quoth  the  Gen- 
eral, without  halting  for  my  question,  "  the 
whole  foul  story  this  creature  has  told  me.  It 
is  bad  enough  that  I  was  made  to  give  ear  to  it. 
The  point  lies  here :  If  Timberlake  were  with 
Peg  in  June  two  years  ago,  and  for  a  year  be- 
fore, this  miserable  tale  falls  to  the  ground  as 
false.  He  makes  its  main  element  to  depend 
upon  Timberlake's  absence — his  charge  of  in- 
iquity against  Peg  holds  only  by  that.  The 
Reverend  Serpent's  hinge  to  swing  his  vilifica- 
tion on  is  the  absence  of  Timberlake.  And  you 
heard  her  declare  how  Timberlake  was  here." 

"  Does  this  snake,  as  you  rightly  term  him, 
give  you  his  story  as  of  a  knowledge  of  his 
own?" 

"No;  he  hides  behind  the  words  of  two 
women ;  a  mother  and  daughter,  named  Craven. 
They  pretend  to  base  their  slanders  on  what 
they  allege  was  told  them  by  the  husband  and 
father,  a  Doctor  Craven — dead,  he  is,  these  ten 
months." 

"And  that  is  mighty  convenient,"  said  I, 
"  for  the  Reverend  Campbell  and  his  fellow 
ophidians — this  retreat  to  the  word  of  one 
238 


THE     MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

who  dwells  dead  and  dumb  beneath  six  feet  of 
earth." 

"  That  is  their  coward  strategy,"  com- 
mented the  General,  furiously.  "  However, 
my  thought  is  to  ask  Noah  to  visit  these 
women  and  question  them  before  the  Reverend 
Campbell  collects  the  wit  to  tell  of  his  talk 
with  me.  I  may  have  alarmed  the  man,  for  I 
was  now  and  then  not  altogether  calm." 

I  was  driven  to  smile  at  this ;  so  much 
concession  of  a  want  of  calmness  on  the  Gen- 
eral's part  would  mean  that  he  had  fumed  up 
and  down  like  a  tiger.  The  scuttling  eager- 
ness of  the  Reverend  Campbell  to  be  clear  of 
the  place  was  not  without  a  cause.  There 
beat  some  reason  in  his  heels. 

"  I  asked  him,"  said  the  General,  "  why  he 
did  not  tell  this  story  in  the  beginning.  He 
explained  that  he  hesitated  to  approach  me 
with  it ;  he  related  it  to  Doctor  Ely,  who  pre- 
tended to  close  terms  with  me.  Then  I  de- 
manded why  this  Ely  had  not  told  me  by  word 
of  mouth  ?  Why  should  he  leave  with  that  lie 
in  his  stomach,  and  then  write  it  and  send  it  by 
post?  He  said  that  when  it  came  to  the  test, 
Doctor  Ely  was  afraid  of  me.  Fear,  fear,  that 
was  the  assassin  excuse  of  him,  and  the  reason 
for  striking  at  a  woman  in  the  dark !  Why,  I 

239 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

would  not  believe  the  sun  was  shining  on  the 
words  of  such  coward  rogues  I" 

It  was  settled  that  I  should  make  company 
for  Noah  when  he  saw  the  Cravens. 

"  But  don't  interfere  for  a  word,  Major," 
exhorted  the  General,  with  a  world  of  earnest- 
ness. "You  do  right  well  when  the  quarry  is 
a  bear  or  the  enemy  no  more  subtile  than  an 
Indian.  But  now  the  foe  is  a  woman,  you 
might  better  fall  to  the  rear  and  leave  leader- 
ship to  Noah.  You  are  monstrous  ignorant  of 
woman." 

The  Cravens  lived  no  breathless  distance 
up  Georgetown  way.  Not  far  from  their  door- 
step, Noah  and  I  encountered  the  Reverend 
Campbell,  who  seemed  shaken  by  the  meeting. 

"  Nothing  could  be  better,"  cried  Noah, 
cheerfully,  claiming  the  Reverend  Campbell's 
arm.  "  You  shall  present  the  Major  and  my- 
self to  the  ladies.  And  please  permit  me  to  do 
the  talking ;  you  may  have  your  turn  at  the 
conversation  when  we  leave." 

The  two  women  were  bilious,  lime-faced 
folk,  and  the  daughter  notably  ugly.  I  was 
something  stiff,  I  fear ;  but  Noah,  when  intro- 
duced by  the  Reverend  Campbell,  showed  as 
balmy  as  a  day  in  May.  He  swept  the  pair 
with  rapid  glance  and  then  turned  to  the 
daughter. 

240 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS     PEG 

u  I  shall  pitch  upon  the  one  I  deem  the 
more  manageable,"  said  Noah,  on  our  journey 
to  the  house,  "  and  when  I  commence  to  talk 
with  her,  you  engage  with  the  other." 

Having  this  hint  in  my  mind,  when  Noah 
began  to  address  the  daughter  I  favored  the 
mother  with  a  word  or  two  on  safe  topics, 
principally  the  weather  and  the  condition  of 
the  roads.  For  all  that,  I  could  tell  how  the 
mother,  like  myself,  had  her  ears  laid  back  to 
catch  the  words  of  the  others.  Her  suspicions 
were  upon  us  from  the  start,  even  with  the 
guaranty  of  the  Reverend  Campbell's  com- 
pany. As  for  that  perturbed  animal,  he  looked 
only  upon  the  floor,  saying  never  a  syllable, 
and  rubbing  one  warty  hand  with  the  other  in 
a  composite  of  doubt  and  trepidation.  The 
tragic  wrath  of  the  General  still  sang  in  the 
hare-hearted  creature's  head. 

"We  are  being  shown  about  by  our  rev- 
erend friend,"  I  heard  Noah  say;  "we  were 
asked  to  make  a  few  calls  with  him  and  meet 
the  better  folk.  We  were  too  glad,  I  assure 
you ;  I  grow  vastly  weary  of  nobody  save  the 
politicians  and  nothing  better  to  talk  of  than 
politics." 

To  say  that  I  was  startled  at  these  gay, 
glib  fictions  on  the  lips  of  my  companion 
would  fall  behind  the  fact;  I  was  amazed.  But 
241 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

I  also  had  the  General's  command  to  leave 
leadership  to  Noah,  and  so  stood  mute.  I  let 
my  gaze  go  for  a  moment  to  the  Reverend 
Campbell  to  come  by  some  thought  of  how  he 
took  the  trend  of  Noah's  surprising  discourse. 
I  saw  naught  beyond  the  top  of  his  head,  as, 
bowed  forward  in  his  chair,  he  appeared  to 
study  his  toes,  meanwhile  twiddling  and  rub- 
bing his  nobby  fingers. 

As  for  the  women,  they  knew  no  argument 
of  fact  or  otherwise  for  distrusting  Noah's 
statements.  I  should  have  before  explained 
that  neither  possessed  the  least  of  glimmer  as 
to  our  identity  or  nearness  to  the  General. 
Indeed,  they  lived  ignorant,  we  found  later,  of 
the  letters  of  that  Ely  ill-using  Peg's  name, 
and  of  the  Reverend  Campbell's  visit  to  the 
General  paid  that  morning.  Thus,  it  fell 
about  that  the  daughter  sailed  off  with  Noah 
on  a  current  of  conversation  in  the  dark,  and 
the  mother  just  as  blind. 

"And  so,"  Noah  went  on,  "you  are  ?. 
copyist  in  the  Department  of  Justice."  Thu 
from  her  explanation  and  his  notice  of  a  stair* 
of  ink  near  her  finger-nail,  for  this  daughter 
was  an  untidy  slut.  "  The  Department  of 
Justice  I"  repeated  Noah.  "  And  there  is 
something  consistent  in  your  employment  in 
such  a  field,  since  Justice  is  a  woman- -and 

242 


THE     MAD     CAPRICIOUS     PEG 

blind."  This  last  quip  under  his  breath.  "I 
am  a  close  friend  with  Judge  Berrien,  the 
Attorney  General,  who  heads  your  department. 
The  great  tie  to  unite  us  is  our  love  for  Cal- 
houn." 

"  Are  you  a  friend  of  the  Vice-President  ?" 
asked  the  daughter,  her  interest  a  little  kindled. 

u  Perhaps  partisan  would  be  the  truer 
word,"  replied  Noah.  "  I  trust  a  good  day  will 
come  when  we  are  to  drop  the  'Vice '  to  his  title 
and  find  him  at  home  in  the  White  House. 
And  you,  I  suppose,  meet  many  of  Calhoun's 
adherents  in  your  Department  of  Justice  ?" 

"  Numbers,  indeed,"  assented  the  daugh- 
ter, while  the  mother  bent  an  intent  ear,  trying 
to  discover  the  drift. 

By  this  time  I  could  well  make  out  how 
neither  of  these  women  was  of  vigorous  in- 
telligence. A  malignant  spirit,  and  a  ripe  apt- 
ness for  evil  to  others.  I  could  read  in  their 
vinegar  faces  and  the  fault-finding  gather  to 
their  brows ;  but  no  power  of  thought,  nor 
yet  much  cunning.  I  leaned  back  now,  inquisi- 
tive as  to  Noah's  methods  and  to  note  their 
results. 

Noah  led  the  talk  up  and  down  the  town. 

He  made  it  cover  several  years,  for  the  Cravens 

were  not  newcomers  in   the  place.     At  last  he 

considered  the   navy  and  mentioned  Timber- 

243 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

lake.  Had  the  young  lady  known  the  hand- 
some purser  Timberlake?  The  young  lady 
had  known  the  handsome  purser  Timberlake. 
A  forbidding  scowl  contorted  her  features  as 
she  said  this. 

"Oh,  I  beg  a  thousand  pardons !"  cried 
Noah.  He  had  caught  the  scowl.  "I  fear  the 
mention  of  the  handsome  Timberlake  is  not 
agreeable.  But  he  cut  his  throat,  and  there's 
the  proper  villain  end  of  him." 

The  butt-end  cruelty  of  Noah's  manner  I 
was  sure  possessed  a  purpose,  for  commonly 
he  was  one  of  your  most  guarded  of  folk. 
While  I  had  this  in  thought,  it  did  not  lessen 
my  dismay  when  the  daughter  fell  to  weeping 
with  her  face  in  her  hands,  and  all  in  frantic 
kind.  Sobbing,  she  left  the  room. 

"An  affair  of  the  heart?"  cooed  Noah, 
sympathetically,  to  the  mother,  while  the  Rev- 
erend Campbell  fidgeted  visibly. 

"  Sir,"  said  the  mother,  loftily, "  you  touched 
her  rudely.  Mr.  Timberlake  was  paying  my 
daughter  marked  attentions,  and  ones  not 
to  be  misunderstood,  when  he  was  stolen  from 
her  side  and  trapped  to  the  altar  by  that  wanton, 
Peg  O'Neal." 

"  Sorry,  I  assure  you,"  murmured  Noah, 
apologetically.  "  Sorry  I  so  blundered  against 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS     PEG 

your  daughter's  sensibilities.  Please  recall  her, 
madam,  if  only  to  hear  me  ask  forgiveness." 

The  daughter,  whose  emotion  was  of  the 
briefest,  returned,  with  nose  reddened  and  look 
more  bilious  than  before.  Noah  became  pro- 
fuse in  his  regrets,  and  severely  characterized 
his  own  awkwardness. 

u  Nor  are  you  to  have  blame  for  your  feel- 
ing," said  he,  addressing  the  daughter  and  as 
a  finish  to  his  self-reproaches.  "  Your  mother 
has  done  us  the  honor  to  confide  the  once  near- 
ness of  the  handsome  purser  Timberlake  to 
you.  And  that  hideous  woman  who  stole  him 
away !  I  do  not  marvel  you  hate  her.  I  could 
teach  you  to  write  her  such  a  letter  as  should 
be  a  revenge ;  for  I  know  one  of  her  secrets, 
the  very  name  of  which  would  crush  her  like  a 
falling  tree." 

It  was  to  me  a  thing  astounding  how 
neither  of  these  women  resented  the  raw 
freedom  of  Noah's  words.  On  the  contrary, 
they  went  with  him,  making  no  question  of  the 
propriety  of  such  talk  on  the  tongue  of  a 
stranger.  They  would  appear  not  to  have  been 
crossed  by  such  a  thought,  for,  so  to  phrase  it, 
they  fell  in  with  Noah,  and,  as  if  it  were,  hand 
in  hand. 

At  the  word  "  secrets,"  both  women  sat 
bolt  upright  and  questioned  Noah  with 
245 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

tongue  and  eye.  What  was  this  hidden  sin  of 
that  siren,  Peg  O'Neal?  They  panted  for  a 
fullest  tale  of  it. 

"  Nay,  then,"  remonstrated  Noah,  u  it  was 
but  a  slip.  I  said  I  could  teach  you  how  to 
write  a  letter  that  should  strike  her  to  the  soul. 
But  of  what  avail?  Timberlake  is  dead;  his 
grave  is  the  Mediterranean." 

"  But  she  lives,"  hissed  the  daughter. 
"  Tell  me  that  secret  concerning  her,  and  I 
shall  call  you  my  best  friend."  Truly,  the  bil- 
ious maiden  had  a  taste  for  vengeance  as 
pointed  as  a  thorn. 

"Why,  then,"  returned  Noah,  hesitating 
with  invented  reluctance,  "  there  is  no  reason 
why  I  should  not  humor  your  wishes.  Take 
your  pen,  and  I'll  dictate  that  letter  I  have  in 
my  mind." 

The  bilious  one  wheeled  about  to  a  writing 
table  which  stood  by  her  side,  and  while  the 
rest  of  us  sat  silent — for  the  mother  and  my- 
self had  long  before  surrendered  our  semblance 
of  conversation,  and  the  unhappy  dominie  still 
pored  upon  the  floor — Noah  began  with  finger 
on  forehead  as  one  who  cudgels  memory. 

"Write  her  this,"  said  Noah.     "  Revenge 

is  sweet  I    I  have  you  in  my  power ;  and  I  shall 

burn  you  as  savages  burn  their  victim  at  the 

stake.     Think  not  that  you  can  escape  me.     I 

246 


THE     MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

would  not  that  death  nor  any  evil  thing  should 
take  you  out  of  my  hand  for  half  the  world." 

When  Noah  began  this  evil  dictation,  the 
lime-faced  one  took  down  his  opening  words 
with  greedy  pen.  As  he  proceeded,  she  first 
hesitated,  and  then  with  blanched,  scared  face, 
whirled  herself  upon  him.  Her  pen  fell  to  the 
floor,  while  her  hands  shook  in  a  gust  of  fear. 
At  the  close  she  gasped : 

"  You  have  read  my  letter  I" 

"  I  have,  indeed,"  returned  Noah.  "  I  have 
repeated  word  for  word  your  atrocious  threats 
to  a  lady  whom  we  will  not  name."  It  was 
verity ;  with  a  memory  like  unto  wax,  Noah 
had  recalled  with  every  faithfulness  of  word 
and  mark  that  menacing  epistle  Peg  brought 
to  me,  and  which  was  then  under  my  private 
lock  and  key.  "  Yes,  you  wrote  that  letter," 
repeated  Noah.  "  And  you,"  coming  round 
on  the  Reverend  Campbell,  who  writhed  as 
one  in  the  jaws  of  wretchedness,  unable  to 
make  a  plan  or  frame  a  sentence ;  "  and  you, 
sir,  were  privy  to  it." 

"  Our  dear  sister  " — he  could  not  lay  aside 
his  snuffle  even  now — "  our  dear  sister  did  in- 
deed tell  me  she  had  sent  such  a  note." 

"You    mix    your    tenses,    sir,"    retorted 
Noah,  savagely.     "  She  told  you  before  it  was 
dispatched,  and  you  read  it." 
247 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

"  My  dear  gentlemen,"  broke  in  the 
mother,  in  mighty  agitation,  "  he  put  that 
letter  in  the  post  himself.  Oh,  gentlemen, 
spare  my  poor  daughter!"  With  that  the 
mother  put  her  arm  about  the  younger  harpy, 
where,  like  some  frightened  thing  of  sin  that 
can  escape  no  farther,  she  waited  as  one  frozen. 

"Your  daughter,  madam,"  replied  Noah, 
quietly  enough,  "  lies  in  no  peril,  although  by 
the  law  there  be  punishments  for  ones  who  thus 
misuse  the  post.  But  there  remains  another 
question.  You  have  put  a  lie  against  that  lady 
of  the  letter  into  the  mouth  of  our  reverend 
friend.  He  has  retold  it  to  many ;  this  morn- 
ing he  told  it  to  the  President.  The  tale 
proves  itself  untrue  upon  its  face,  and  that  is 
the  one  merit  of  it.  It  was  a  dangerous  false- 
hood to  tell,  and  " — here  Noah  looked  towards 
the  unhappy  Reverend  Campbell,  who,  as 
though  fascinated  by  the  other's  baleful  eye, 
lifted  up  his  visage,  with  its  ugly  array  of 
munching  mouth  and  flabby  unhealthfulness — 
"  and  a  still  more  dangerous  falsehood  to 
repeat." 

"What  do  you  require  of  us,  gentlemen?" 
asked  the  frightened  mother-harpy. 

u  Nothing,  save  tongues  of  peace,"  cried 
Noah.  "  It  is  too  much  to  suppose  that  her 
friends  will  rest  quiet  while  you  foully  tear  a 


THE      MAD     CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

good  woman  to  shreds.  Tie  up  your  tongues, 
you  three,  and  the  thing  rests.  Let  another 
word  escape,  and  a  torch  shall  be  found  to 
burn  you  out  like  any  other  nest  of  adders." 

The  Reverend  Campbell  made  no  return 
to  this  warning  thrown  to  him  with  the 
others.  The  scoundrel  had  the  wisdom  of 
silence  when  words  would  work  no  benefit. 
Still,  I  could  trace  a  hunger  for  retaliation 
writhing  beneath  the  coarse  snake's  skin  of 
him. 

"  I  think  we  have  locked  three  evil  mouths 
to-day,"  observed  Noah,  as  we  were  about  our 
return.  "  It  is  the  less  important,  perhaps, 
since  already  a  whole  flock  of  these  lies  has 
been  uncaged  in  the  town." 

"  It  is  never  unimportant,"  I  returned,  "  to 
identify  an  enemy.  I  am  the  more  relieved, 
too,  since  you  cleared  up  the  mystery  of  that 
written  menace.  And  yet  I  do  not  make  out 
how  you  supposed  it  gained  emanation  among 
these  people." 

"  I  had  no  such  thought  in  the  beginning," 
replied  Noah.  "  I  knew,  as  did  you,  and  with  a 
glance,  how  our  entertainers  were  nothing  fine 
nor  deep,  but  of  a  harshest  clay  and  of  least  in- 
telligence. No  more  delicacy  was  required  than 
might  do  for  driving  pigs.  At  first  I  sought 
to  develop  their  whereabouts,  and  stormed  the 
249 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

woods  with  my  remarks.  In  that,  and  on  the 
sheer  chance  of  it,  I  employed  the  name  of 
Timberlake.  The  daughter's  disturbed  feat- 
ures were  a  cue.  And  you  know  the  rest. 
The  digging  up  of  the  authorship  of  the 
letter  was  but  the  birth  of  a  bold  guess.  How- 
ever, we've  paralyzed  that  trio  of  tongues, 
which  is  excellent  as  far  as  it  goes.  And  we 
must  beat  out  these  fires  wherever  we  find 
them.  Else  they  will  spread,  and  may  come  to 
mean  a  conflagration  that  shall  burn  some  one 
to  a  cinder." 

"And  going  back  for  cause,"  I  said,  my 
thought  recurring  to  Peg,  u  I  still  can  not  tell 
the  hound  purpose  of  this  incessant,  malig- 
nant pursuit  of  our  little  girl." 

"  Sir,  they  reason  in  this  guise,"  returned 
Noah.  "As  I've  told  you,  the  great  impulse 
springs  from  the  adherents  of  Calhoun.  They 
desire  the  destruction  of  the  President  as  a 
method  of  their  man's  advancement.  They 
fear  that  the  President  will  seek  to  succeed 
himself — there  has  been  illustrious  example 
— or,  in  default  of  that,  insist  on  selecting  his 
successor.  They  attack  Mrs.  Eaton  in  hope 
of  its  reaction  against  the  administration.  Sup- 
pose, sir,  they  make  her  out  to  be  vile,  suppose 
they  show  the  administration  as  condoning  and 
defending  her  vileness,  will  they  not  have  or- 
250 


THE     MAD     CAPRICIOUS     PEG 

ganized  the  women  against  us?  Give  Calhoun 
the  women  cf  the  country  to  be  his  allies,  and 
he  will  go  over  the  administration  like  an 
avalanche." 

"But  you" — now  I  spoke  gingerly,  for  I 
would  not  hurt  so  true  a  friend  nor  ruffle  him 
with  himself — "  in  your  pretense  of  friendship 
for  Calhoun,  and  as  well  in  other  particulars, 
misled  our  harpy  folk." 

"  I  but  fought  the  devil  with  fire  and 
snared  liars  with  lies,"  said  he.  "These  she- 
villains  were  not  entitled  to  the  truth.  Only 
truthful  folk  have  a  right  to  truth." 

When  the  General  and  I  were  together,  I 
laid  before  him  those  ethics  or  word-morals  of 
Noah ;  he  stoutly  agreed  with  that  diplomat. 

"  One  is  not  always  bound  to  tell  the 
truth,"  asserted  the  General.  "  Would  you  tell 
a  footpad  whose  gun  was  at  your  breast  where 
you  lodged  your  money  ?  In  war,  would  you 
disclose  your  strengths  or  your  plans  to  the 
foe  because  he  asked?  Sir,  truth  is  a  prop- 
erty— a  goods ;  to  have  right  to  it  one  must 
possess  title  to  it.  The  casual  man,  and  the 
more  if  he  would  work  me  harm,  has  as  scant 
a  right  to  search  my  head  with  his  questions  as 
to  search  my  pockets  with  his  fingers.  Take 
my  word  for  it,  Major," — this  in  high  Delphic 
vein,  for  the  General  was  growing  pleased  with 
251 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

his  argument — "take  my  word,  sir;  the  right 
in  the  one  is  the  right  in  the  other,  and  he  who 
may  lock  a  door  may  lie." 

"These  harpies,"  said  I,  commenting  on 
what  had  befallen,  "  and  the  Reverend  Camp- 
bell have  fair  admitted  their  guilt." 

"Why,  as  to  that,  sir,"  returned  the  Gen- 
eral, "  the  falsity  of  the  story  was  never  in 
doubt.  But  the  prime  thing  is  to  smother  out 
these  calumnies.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  how  this 
day  has  been  well  spent." 

In  concord  with  what  we  had  long  before 
agreed,  neither  the  General  nor  I,  by  lisp  or 
the  lifting  of  an  eyebrow,  gave  Peg  a  least  in- 
timation of  what  had  gone  forward  about  her 
name  and  fame.  And  yet,  she  must  have 
divined  her  close  interest,  for  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  twilight  she  came  again  to  the 
General,  saying  she  remembered  books  of  ac- 
count kept  by  Timberlake's  own  hand,  which 
would  demonstrate  his  whereabouts  for  those 
four  years.  Her  mother,  Peg  said,  had  these 
books  in  her  house. 

"Why,  then,"  said  the  General,  "that 
should  give  us  the  best  evidence.  Major,  go 
you  with  the  child  to  her  mother's  and  bring 
me  those  books." 

It  was  not  the  first  call  I  had  made  on 
Peg's  mother,  but  this  night  the  garrulous  old 
252 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS     PEG 

soul  would  so  launch  herself  upon  wide  waters 
of  gossip,  and  never  quit  until  she  crossed  them 
from  shore  to  shore,  that  it  leaned  towards  ten 
of  the  clock  when  Peg  and  I,  taking  the  road 
in  our  hands,  as  say  the  Spaniards,  went  forth 
for  our  return. 

The  night  was  dark  and  still,  and  a  moist 
promise  of  rain  hung  in  the  air.  Our  way  lay 
from  the  south,  diagonally  across  the  wooded 
patch  called  the  Mall.  We  were  finding  our 
path  without  trouble,  Peg  keeping  close  and 
warm  to  my  side,  with  a  hand  gripping  my 
arm,  and  had  gone  some  distance  when,  in  a 
way  of  dull  faintness,  a  sound  like  the  fall  of  a 
stealthy  foot  on  the  grass  overtook  my  ear. 
Peg  heard  it  as  soon  as  I. 

"  Are  we  dogged  ?"  she  asked.  Peg  showed 
no  fear,  but  bit  off  her  words  in  a  manner 
vicious  and  resentful. 

"  That  we  may  soon  know,"  said  I.  Then 
I  drew  her  in  by  a  clump  of  bushes  where  her 
white  frock  would  be  screened.  u  It  should  be 
a  strange  thing  if  any  save  ourselves  were 
going  this  road  at  such  an  hour." 

We  had  been  but  a  moment  hidden  by 
the  trees  when  a  dark  figure  crouched  past 
us  with  furtive,  hurrying  step  that  made  it 
plain  he  followed  as  a  spy.  As  he  would  have 
brushed  by,  I  stretched  out  and  seized  him  by 
253 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

the  shoulder.  The  creature  screamed  like  a 
hare  when  the  dogs  snap  her  up. 

Now  I  lugged  him  to  the  open,  and,  for 
all  the  night  was  moonless  and  no  stars  be- 
cause of  clouds,  it  puzzled  neither  Peg  nor 
myself  to  make  out  the  Reverend  Campbell. 
The  fellow  hung  in  my  hand  like  a  rag,  and 
beyond  that  first  shrill  screech  uttered  not  a 
word. 

"What  shall  I  do  with  him?"  I  asked, 
still  holding  him  in  my  grasp  like  something 
dead. 

"Kill  him!"  cried  Peg;  "kill  him  with 
your  great  hands!"  And  then,  while  I  was 
dumb  before  the  sudden  murderous  fury  of 
her  tones,  Peg  began  to  plead  the  other  way 
about.  "Let  him  go  free,"  she  said.  "He's 
not  worth  punishment.  And  yet  it  is  sure  he 
was  after  us  as  a  spy." 

"  I  think,"  said  I,  "  it  would  do  no  harm 
to  throw  him  in  yonder  water." 

Now  in  that  day  a  chain  of  baby  lakes  lay 
along  this  portion  of  the  Potomac  fens,  and 
one  of  these  was  glimmering  on  our  near  left 
hand.  It  was  not  deep  ;  but  muddy  and  grown 
up  to  lilies,  and  the  home,  besides,  of  certain 
sedate  bullpouts  and  turtles  and  other  stagnant 
fish  that  do  not  care  for  currents  but  love  dead 
waters.  These,  since  bullpouts  and  turtles  be 
254 


THE      MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

in  no  manner  hysterical  animals  nor  nervous, 
would  not  suffer  for  any  plumping  of  the  spy 
into  their  midst ;  and,  thus  forming  my  resolve, 
I  was  for  posting  to  its  execution.  My  cap- 
tive still  swung  limp  and  loose,  for  all  the 
world  as  though  he  had  fainted.  I  could  not 
believe  this  last,  however,  and  in  any  event  1 
would  throw  him  in  among  the  lilies.  If  he 
were  too  far  gone  with  fright  to  save  his  own 
life  from  drowning,  it  would  mean  no  more 
than  that  I  must  wade  to  him  and  fish  him 
ashore  again. 

Thus  adjusted  in  my  mind,  I  was  on  the 
brink  of  heaving  him  overboard,  when  with  <* 
touch  of  protest  Peg  stayed  my  arm. 

"No,"  she  cried,  "let  him  go  free." 

"  But  a  moment  gone,"  I  remonstrated, 
"and  you  were  calling  for  murder  with  all  its 
inconveniences.  Now  you  interpose  to  stop  a 
mighty  proper  punishment,  for,  I  bethink  me, 
it  has  been  custom  to  duck  spies  in  every 
age." 

"  Still,  you  must  let  him  go,"  cried  Peg. 
11 1  will  not  have  you  touch  him."  And  she 
seized  my  hand  with  her  little  fingers. 

With  that  I  threw  the  caitiff  creature  on  the 
grass ;  whereupon  he  rolled  to  his  knees  and 
extended  his  palms  towards  Peg.  There  was 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

something  to  roil  me  in  the  attitude,  and    to 
end  that  I  pushed  him  over  with  my  foot. 

"  Be  off,"  I  cried.  "  And  you  are  to  thank 
this  lady  for  your  dry  clothes.  You  had  been 
splashing  among  the  lily-pads  except  for  her." 

Without  retort,  he  scrambled  to  his  soles 
and  was  gone  like  some  foul  shadow.     His  ab- 
sence, of  itself,   relieved  me,  for  the  sight  of 
him  was  like  a  blot. 

"  He  would  not  resist,  and  so  I  made  you 
let  him  go,"  said  Peg. 

"  You  would  have  it  safe  for  cowards,"  I 
returned. 

"  It  wasn't  for  that  creature  !"  exclaimed 
Peg.  She  seemed  to  scorn  me  for  a  dullard. 
"  No ;  it  was  for  you.  I  would  not  have  such 
a  memory — you,  punishing  an  unresisting 
beast  1" 

We  were  for  a  second  time  on  our  way, 
Peg  now  holding  my  arm  with  her  two  hands 
and  laying  her  cheek  against  it  like  a  child.  I 
could  tell  by  that  how  this  bushwhacking 
rogue  had  fluttered  her  not  a  little.  At  last  she 
lifted  her  face,  and  I  could,  even  in  the  pitch 
darkness,  catch  the  deep  glow  of  her  eyes. 

"  And  after  all,  for  what  should  you  think 
he  spied  upon  us  ?  What  should  he  hope  to 
find?" 

"  Indeed,  that   is  beyond  me,"  I  replied. 
256 


THE     MAD      CAPRICIOUS      PEG 

"  But  the  very  wicked  are  often  very  foolish 
too." 

"To  follow  so  right  a  character  as  your- 
self, watch-dog,  is  for  a  spy  to  waste  his 
strength."  Peg  spoke  in  a  droll  way  of 
laughter. 

"  Why,  then,  I  may  say  I  emulate  the  vir- 
tuous Drusus,  who  commanded  the  architect  to 
so  build  his  house  that  all  who  would  might  be- 
hold every  act  of  his  life."  I  must  tell  you  I  had 
studied  the  classics  in  my  youth,  and  would  like 
at  times  to  flourish  with  a  scrap  or  two.  I  was 
no  pedant  to  show  off  my  learning,  only  a  tag 
or  two  from  Ovid  or  Horace  on  occasion, 
and  just  enough  to  suggest  what  a  deal  I  had 
forgot. 

"And  your  Drusus  would  so  live  as  to 
hide  nothing."  Peg  was  still  stifling  a  laugh. 
"  How  very  admirable  I  And  what  was  the  end 
of  your  memorable  Drusus?" 

"  As  to  that,"  I  retorted,  puzzled  and  put 
about  by  the  satirical  toss  she  gave  to  her 
queries,  "  as  to  that,  I  believe  the  people  stoned 
him  to  death." 

"Ah,  the  poor  people!  His  awful  good- 
ness, I  suppose,  drove  them  to  frenzy."  Peg's 
voice  was  mocking  sympathy.  Then,  with  a 
great  abruptness  of  anger,  and  throwing  away 
my  arm  :  "  Do  you  know  what  I  think  of  your 
257 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

precious  Drusus?  I  think  he  was  a  hypocrite, 
and  a  canting  prig  who  earned  his  fate ;  and  if 
he  have  followers  they  should  taste  the  same 
destiny  for  a  sniveling  conceit  that  teaches 
them  a  holiness  above  their  neighbors."  This 
Peg  flung  at  me  like  a  spoiled  child ;  and  then, 
stepping  smartly,  she  went  on  alone,  I  follow- 
ing in  silence  a  yard  or  more  to  the  rear. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE    GENERAL   SELECTS    HIS    SUCCESSOR. 

Now  fell  across  us  the  sultry  summer; 
sometimes  with  rain,  and  steamy  mud  to  follow ; 
and  then  with  stretches  of  a  burning  dryness 
when  the  dust  curled  aloft  on  the  impertinent 
lip  of  the  wind  to  fill  folk's  eyes  and  faces. 
There  came,  too,  the  shadow  of  impending 
calamity  to  rest  upon  us,  for  the  General's 
health  began  to  flag,  and  it  would  look  for  a 
while  as  though  he  had  been  marked  by  death 
itself.  The  malady  was  never  understood  by 
me,  and  I  think  the  doctor  lived  no  better  off; 
but,  as  near  as  one  might  guess,  it  arose  from 
the  bogs  and  reeking  marshes  fringing  the 
river  on  our  south,  and  on  which,  morning  and 
evening,  I've  seen  the  damps  and  miasmas  lying 
white  and  thick  as  a  flock  of  wool — a  sight  to 
shake  the  strongest. 

The  General  was  indeed  ill,  and  with  face 
turning  to  be  wan  while  his  haggard  eye  grew 
ever  more  bright  and  hollow.  He  lost  greatly 
the  use  of  his  legs ;  those  members  being  swollen 
to  a  preposterous  size,  and  his  feet  dropsical, 
so  that  he  could  not  be  said  to  walk  but  only 

259 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

hobble.  He  must  be  supported,  leaning  com- 
monly on  my  arm,  though  sometimes  Peg's 
pretty  shoulder  was  his  crutch ;  for  she  was 
with  him  very  constant,  reading  to  him,  or 
passing  him  a  glass,  or  cheering  him  with  her 
talk  of  flippant  nothings. 

With  his  usual  bitterness  of  resolution  the 
General  would  each  day  be  up  and  dressed, 
and  pass  the  hours  on  a  lounge  whichAugustus 
prepared,  and  where  he  might  lie  and  through 
the  open  casement  command  a  prospect  of  the 
distant  Arlington  hills. 

To  such  a  lowness  did  the  General  sink 
that  his  death  was  waited  for,  and  the  doctor 
who  attended  him — and  did  no  good — felt 
driven  to  give  him  the  name  of  it. 

"  For  one  who  is  in  so  high  a  place,"  said 
the  doctor,  "  must  needs  have  weighty  con- 
cerns to  be  put  in  order;  and  therefore  of  all 
folk  he  should  be  shown  his  end  in  time." 

This  was  gospel  true  enough  as  an  ab- 
straction, but  in  the  case  of  the  General  that 
doctor  should  have  known  how  his  business 
was  to  cure,  and  not  stand  prating  of  death. 
Of  this  I  informed  him  in  such  wise  that  he 
was  at  once  for  leaving  the  house  and  never 
coming  back.  The  loss  might  have  been  easily 
measured  had  he  done  so. 

It  was  the   General  himself  who  told   me 

i 
260 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

he  was  to  die ;  and  it  stood  a  marvel,  the 
good  patience  and  sympathy  wherewith  he 
went  upon  the  information.  One  would  have 
supposed  it  was  of  my  death  he  talked. 

"And  in  the  bottom  of  it,"  said  he,  in 
conclusion,  "  I  have  the  chance  of  meeting  her" 
— pointing  to  his  wife's  picture — "and  that 
chance  alone  would  make  twenty  deaths  worth 
trying.  For  when  we  come  to  the  end  of  it, 
Major,  the  heaven  they  talk  of  may  be  true." 
This  last  with  a  manner  of  reverie  as  when  hope 
upholds  conviction  leaning  to  a  fall. 

As  best  it  could,  my  nature  fought  against 
a  belief  that  the  General  would  die ;  but  his 
own  word  overpowered  me.  The  fear  of  it, 
when  he  told  the  news,  went  through  me  like 
a  spear.  Or  it  was  as  if  a  stone  were  rolled 
upon  my  heart. 

Sick  folk,  for  a  rule,  are  impatient  and 
sharply  cross  with  those  about,  even  with  their 
best  beloved.  But  the  General  would  be  the 
opposite,  and  was  never  more  tolerant  than  now 
when  he  lay  ill;  and  this  kindness  made  it  a 
privilege  and  a  pleasure  to  be  near  him,  and 
not  a  burden  to  be  borne. 

Peg,  as  i  have  written,  was  much  with  him 
— fresh  and  sweet  as  a  cluster  of  violets, 
about  a  sick  room  she  was  worth  her  weight  in 
drugs.  And  the  General  and  she  had  never  so 

z6i 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

full  a  space  for  acquaintance  before,  and  so 
each  day  he  came  to  know  Peg  better  and  to 
love  her  more. 

There  existed  throughout  this  summer  a 
kind  of  truce  in  the  crusade  against  Peg ;  the 
Reverend  Ely  had  turned  to  be  as  mute  as  an 
oyster,  while  the  Reverend  Campbell  and  those 
harpies  whom  Noah  so  confounded  were  not 
only  silent  but  deeply  out  of  sight.  There  was 
neither  sign  nor  rumor  to  come  from  them. 

The  books  of  account  which  Peg  and  I 
brought  away  from  her  mother's  on  the  night 
when  we  were  dogged,  showed  all  Peg  claimed. 
For  the  June  her  detractors  spoke  of  in  their 
lyings,  and  for  three  years  before  and  well 
nigh  a  twelvemonth  to  follow,  Timberlake  was 
in  town,  and,  after  his  wedding,  constantly  with 
Peg  until  he  sailed.  There  was  left  no  ground 
for  argument,  and  that  tale,  as  fatuous  as  it 
was  wicked,  fell,  knocked  on  its  sinful  head. 

As  for  the  lurking  Reverend  Campbell 
himself,  I  caught  sight  of  him  but  once.  This 
was  accident,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  short- 
est, for  he  dodged  around  a  corner  like  the 
wind ;  and  although — through  an  idleness  of 
mind  to  see  him  going — I  made  speed  to  be  at 
his  point  of  disappearance,  he,  so  to  say,  had 
exhaled.  Into  what  dark  crevice  he  crawled  to 
hide  from  me  I  have  no  hint;  but  as  if  that 
262 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

street  corner  were  a  corner  of  the  universe  and 
he  spilled  therefrom  into  the  very  abyss  of 
eternity  itself,  I  never  afterward  caught  the 
picture  of  his  tallow  cheeks  and  festering, 
munching  lips. 

This  peace  for  Peg  was  something  due  to 
a  desertion  of  the  town  ;  for  everybody — and 
women-folk  especially — not  tied  by  the  leg  to 
duties,  went  seeking  cool  comfort  by  the  ocean 
or  on  the  mountains. 

Eaton  himself  made  one  of  those  who 
went  away;  he  would  have  had  Peg  for  com- 
pany, but  she  urged — what  was  true,  since  the 
old  lady  had  grown  frail  and  weakly — that  she 
ought  not  to  leave  her  mother  for  so  long  a 
space.  Eaton  agreed  with  entire  good  humor 
to  this,  and  so  left  Peg  behind,  and  never  a 
qualm  or  mark  of  hesitation,  while  he  sought 
his  ease  by  the  sea. 

Eaton  from  his  own  view-point  might  well 
spare  Peg  from  his  plans ;  he  was  extremely  a 
man's  man,  and  owning,  withal,  a  hand  for  the 
bottle  and  a  mighty  promptitude  for  cards, 
would  the  better  amuse  himself  with  no  wife  to 
be  a  mortgage  on  his  liberty. 

Summer  is   for  society  what  winter  is  to 

war ;  the  forces  lie  all  in  quarters,  and  beyond 

caring    for   their    arms    or   practicing   a    drill 

against  the  campaign  day  to  dawn,  there  arises 

263 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

nothing  to  be  called  a  movement.  Indeed,  as 
I've  explained,  the  women — who,  as  Peg  would 
have  it,  are  the  fighting  line — for  the  most  part 
were  fled  to  beach  and  hill.  The  town  was  in 
its  sleep,  and  society  would  awaken  it  only  with 
the  advent  of  the  snows. 

In  the  last  there  were  still  our  three  cabi- 
net wives,  that  is,  the  ladies  Berrien,  Branch, 
and  Ingham,  to  be  left  about  us.  These  would 
soon  depart ;  but  by  this  claim  or  that,  they 
had  been  brought  to  lag  behind  when  the 
great  covey  of  their  flounced  fellows  went 
whirring  away  to  be  cool.  Peg  never  had 
visited  these  folk,  nor  they  her,  and  on  those 
few  occasions  when  official  exigency  threw  them 
together,  the  cabinet  three,  who,  like  the  Gen- 
eral's fleeting  niece,  were  utterly  beneath  the 
sway  of  the  Vice-President's  wife — herself  a 
woman  of  unquestioned  place  and  breeding^ 
and  a  natural  queen,  besides, — took  heed  to 
hold  aloof  from  Peg.  On  her  side,  Peg  passed 
them  by  or  looked  them  through  as  though 
they  had  not  been,  and,  if  I  am  to  judge,  came 
off  from  these  tiltings  with  prestige  all  un- 
dimmed. 

It  would  have  been  as  good  as  the  play, 

were  I  not  prey  and  spoil  to  so  much  soreness 

in  the  business,   to  have   watched  those  tacit 

joustings  of  Peg  with  our  old  mailed  warriors 

264 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

of  the  drawing  rooms.  The  dauntless  Peg 
crossed  glances  with  the  most  seasoned  of  her 
bad-wishers,  and  left  them  ever  the  worse  for 
those  thrustings.  If  she  were  wounded,  no 
one  learned  the  bleeding  fact ;  and  not  even  I 
should  know.  From  the  laugh  to  ring  true, 
and  the  fine  spirit  of  her,  I  was  fain  to  con- 
clude that  Peg,  so  far  from  shrinking,  joyed  in 
such  silken  combats  to  take  place  among  the 
flowers  and  with  the  music  of  orchestras  stir- 
ring the  blood ;  and  in  the  last  I  am  sure  she 
did. 

Berrien  and  Branch,  and  for  that  matter 
the  clumsy  Ingham,  would  with  an  invariable 
politeness,  nicely  measured  to  a  hair,  greet  Peg 
whenever  they  met  with  her ;  and  she  would 
accept  their  courtesy  in  a  cold  way  of  elevation 
and  as  though  our  cabinet  gentlemen  came  of 
the  general  press  about  whose  very  names  she 
did  not  know  and  never  would.  On  such  lofty 
terms  a  fair  peace  was  maintained,  and  nothing 
to  rancorously  rise  above  the  majesty  of  a 
ripple  to  beat  upon  any  one's  shore. 

The  General  might  have  preferred  a  better 
cordiality,  but  he  could  make  no  interference. 

"  If  to  step  between  a  man  and  his  enemy," 
he  would  say,  "is  to  invoke  a  risk,  how  much 
more  is  he  in  danger  who  tampers  with  the 
feuds  of  women?" 

265 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

For  one,  I  much  agreed  with  him,  and  we 
both  looked  on,  idle  of  hand  and  tongue, 
while  Peg  met  and  foiled  the  "  Redsticks,"  as 
the  General  named  them. 

Nor  would  Peg  need  our  aid.  I've  seen 
no  prouder,  braver  woman  walk  across  a  room, 
or  one  of  a  more  nimble  faculty  or  fortitude 
more  broadly  planted,  than  our  Peg.  My 
admiration  spent  its  days  to  weave  new  wreaths 
for  her. 

It  was  the  doting  Ingham — he  of  our  Treas- 
ury— to  be  witless  enough  to  broach  this  busi- 
ness of  feminine  ice  with  Eaton.  Ingham  was  a 
girthy  person,  and  one's  briefest  consideration 
disclosed  him  for  the  vulgar  Pennsylvania  pa- 
per-maker he  was.  Short  and  thick  of  body, 
with  thick  legs,  thick  neck ;  even  his  tongue 
was  thick,  and  his  slow  wits  thickest  of  all. 
Of  Ingham  I  shall  not  forget  Jim's  estimate. 

"  It  aint  for  Jim,"  said  that  worthy,  "  to  go 
talkin'  sassy  about  no  white  gentleman;  but  as 
for  dish  yere  Mr.  Ingham,  thar's  a  notion  ag'in 
him  which  goes  gropin'  about  through  Jim  like 
d'grace  of  heaven  through  a  camp  meetin'. 
That  Mr.  Ingham  is  mean ;  he's  that  mean  if  he 
owned  a  lake  he  wouldn't  give  a  duck  a  drink. 
He's  jes'  about  as  pop'lar  with  Jim  as  a  wet 
dawg;  an'  that's  d'mortual  fac'." 
266 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

"  You  don't  appear  to  carry  a  high  estimate 
of  our  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,"  said  I. 

41  'Deed  Jim  don't,  Marse  Major,"  he  re- 
plied. "An' jes' let  Jim  warnyou-all.  You  don't 
want  to  disrecollect,  Marse  Major,  that  Jim's 
a  heap  sight  older  man  than  you  be,  an'  while 
Jim  don't  deny  he's  beengettin'  duller  an'  dul- 
ler ever  since  you  locks  up  that  demijohn,  still 
it's  mighty  likely  Jim's  wise  an'  wary  to  a  p'int 
where  you-all  oughter  listen." 

11  Go  on,"  said  I,  "  I'm  listening." 

"Course  you-all  is  listenin',"  agreed  Jim; 
"  of  course  you  listens,  'cause  you  has  got 
listenin'  sense.  That's  what  Jim  likes  about 
you.  Now  let  Jim  tell  you,  Marse  Major;  that 
Mr.  Ingham's  plumb  selfish.  Jim  can  see  it  in 
his  eye.  He's  all  right  whilst  he's  haulin'  fodder 
for  his  own  stack,  but  you  let  your  intrus  run 
ag'in  his,  an'  you  hyar  Jim !  that  Mr.  Ingham 
'ud  burn  your  barn  to  boil  his  egg  quicker 
than  a  mule  can  kick." 

Ingham  took  up  the  subject  of  their  wives' 
coldness  with  Eaton  in  an  unexpected  fashion.  I 
have  heard  that  he  was  thus  set  in  foolish  motion 
by  a  fear  of  trouble  at  ten  paces  with  the  war 
secretary,  and  would  have  placated  him  and 
missed  a  bullet.  He  stood  under  no  cloud  of 
peril,  but  that  dove-like  truth  was  yet  to  claim 
him.  The  General  would  have  been  his  shield  ; 
267 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

but  Ingham,  who  regarded  the  General  as 
chief  among  the  fire-eaters,  would  be  the  last 
to  suspect  the  news. 

It  was  on  the  kibes  of  a  cabinet  meeting 
when  Ingham  approached  Eaton. 

"  Sir,"  said  Ingham,  tugging  nervously  at 
his  lapels,  "  sir,  there  is  something  of  strain 
between  our  ladies,  about  which,  if  you'll  per- 
mit, I  should  like  word  with  you." 

"Why,  sir,"  returned  Eaton,  seizing  the 
initiative,  "I  perhaps  should  tell  you  that  I  can 
not,  in  her  social  obligations,  control  my  wife. 
That,  sir,  let  me  say,  is  work  beyond  a  gentle- 
man. My  wife  must  be  her  own  mistress;  and 
while  I  know  of  no  just  cause  why  she  should 
refuse  to  receive  or  recognize  Mrs.  Ingham,  I 
must  still  insist  how  the  right  to  do  both 
lies  wholly  in  her  hands.  Personally,  I  may 
deplore  my  wife's  refusal  of  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Mrs.  Ingham ;  however,  I  stand  none 
the  less  ready  to  give  you  any  satisfaction  you 
require." 

With  this  speech,  Eaton  bent  his  brows 
upon  the  other  in  such  way  of  iron  menace 
that  without  a  word  our  timid  treasury  gentle- 
man clapped  on  his  hat  and  went  pantingly  in 
quest  of  safer  company. 

"  Was  it  not  a  master-stroke  ?"  exulted  the 
General,  when  he  related  the  flurry.  "  Eaton 
268 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

had  the  hill  of  him  in  an  instant;  Napoleon 
himself  could  not  have  exhibited  a  more  mili- 
tary genius." 

The  General,  in  his  glee,  would  talk  of 
nothing  else  throughout  the  evening ;  but  since 
I  left  him  at  an  early  hour  I  was  not  bored  too 
much.  Eaton  replied  in  a  manner  to  his  credit 
when  one  considers  the  fact  of  a  surprise ;  but 
there  dwelt  therein  no  reason  for  that  long- 
drawn  delight  in  which  the  General  indulged. 
I  was  so  far  fortunate,  however,  as  to  soon 
quit  him  on  that  particular  night,  having  work 
to  look  after,  and  so  escaped  his  enthusiasm. 
Any  childishness  of  satisfaction  for  little  reason, 
by  the  General,  obtruded  offensively  on  my 
ideal  of  him,  and  I  would  experience  no  more 
of  it  than  I  might ;  wherefore  I  went  about  my 
affairs,  leaving  him  in  full  song,  celebrating 
the  gallant  cleverness  of  Eaton,  who,  to  my 
notion,  instead  of  his  smart  speeches  should 
have  pulled  the  Ingham  nose. 

While  the  General  was  sick  on  his  lounge, 
and  when  Peg  tired  of  reading,  she  would  fall 
to  a  review  of  the  unremitting  politeness  be- 
stowed upon  her  by  the  suave  Van  Buren.  One 
might  read  the  pleasure  of  the  General  over 
these  tidings  in  his  relaxed  face  and  the  heed 
he  offered  to  each  detail.  The  word  of  how 
Van  Buren  had  brought  Vaughn  of  the  English 
269 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

and  Krudener  of  the  Russians — for  these  min. 
isters  were  joint  despots  among  the  legation 
folk  and  led  them  to  what  social  fields  they 
would — gave  the  General  peculiar  satisfaction; 
and  if  there  remained  a  door  in  his  affections 
which  had  not  yet  opened  to  the  little  Knick- 
£rbocker,  Peg's  recitals  of  the  secretary's 
steady  yet  delicately  balanced  goodness  threw 
it  wide. 

When  the  General  and  I  were  alone  with 
our  nightly  pipes — albeit  he  at  the  time  would 
be  in  his  bed  for  sickness — he  made  his  little 
premier  the  great  burden  of  his  conversation 
and  was  wont  to  find  in  him  new  excellencies. 
Time  and  again  he  would  quote  Peg  to  me  for 
virtues  owned  of  Van  Buren  and  which  he 
feared  might  otherwise  elude  my  notice.  It 
was  clear  "the  good  little  secretary" — Peg's 
name — was  become  a  first  favorite  of  the  Gen- 
eral; and  to  be  frank,  and  for  identical  reasons, 
as  much  should  be  said  of  me.  I  loved  any 
who  was  good  to  Peg,  and  made  no  bones  of 
showing  it.  Wherefore,  you  are  to  conceive, 
there  arose  no  dispute  between  us ;  instead,  we 
took  turn  and  turn  about  in  exalting  our  secre- 
tary and  teaching  each  other  a  higher  account 
of  the  man. 

Peg  would  set  forth  to  the  General — it 
amused  him  and  he  would  question  her  con- 
270 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

earning  such  matters — how  in  this  sort  or  in 
that,  and  always  in  some  way  of  trifles  too 
small  for  the  mind  of  a  man  to  seize  on,  the 
women  who  followed  the  social  banner  of  the 
Vice-President's  wife  would  strive  to  drive  her 
into  obscurity.  And  this  was  not  wanting  of 
stern  effect  on  the  General.  The  name  Cal- 
houn  found  constant  repetition  in  these  tales, 
and  never  to  give  the  General  delight.  And 
there  is  this  to  observe :  while  Peg  spoke  of 
Mrs.  Calhoun,  the  General,  for  his  side,  would 
be  thinking  only  on  the  Vice-President,  and  at 
the  end  he  held  even  more  hateful  views  of 
the  Carolinian  than  of  Henry  Clay  himself. 
Surely,  he  came  finally  to  be  strung  like  a  bow 
against  him. 

This  vivacity  of  disfavor  for  Calhoun,  how- 
ever, may  have  had  its  story.  Clay  was  a  foe 
beaten  beyond  question,  powerless  for  further 
war.  Calhoun,  on  the  other  hand,  was  increas- 
ing in  power;  and,  active  in  design  and  search- 
ing for  the  future,  stood  forth  as  an  enemy  yet 
to  be  conquered. 

"  The  man  is  a  would-be  traitor,"  said  the 
General  one  day  when  speaking  with  me  of 
Calhoun  and  his  lines  of  political  resolve.  "  He 
should  consider,  however ;  I  may  yet  teach  him 
a  better  patriotism." 

271 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  He  is  for  your  destruction,"  said  I, 
"  and  has  been  since  the  Seminole  days." 

"  Nothing  is  more  plain  than  that,"  said 
the  General.  "And  yet,  were  he  or  his  people 
fibered  of  any  decency,  they  would  not,  as  an 
element  of  assault  on  me,  seek  to  make  tatters 
of  poor  Peg.  I  can  not  see  how  they  bring 
themselves  to  that ;  for  myself,  I  would  not 
give  hand  to  so  vile  a  ploy  for  all  the  world." 

"  They  would  plunge  you  in  for  Peg's 
defence,"  I  said,  recalling  Noah's  explanation. 
"  They  hope  to  set  the  women  of  the  land 
upon  you  as  he  who  gives  countenance  to  one 
flagrant  of  her  sins.  That  is  their  precious 
intrigue;  they,  with  their  lies  of  Peg,  would 
shake  your  power  with  private  home-loving 
folk  whose  firesides  are  clean  and  who  base 
themselves  on  chastity.  There  you  have  the 
whole  crow-colored  scheme  of  them,  with  the 
black  impulse  which  turns  them  against  Peg." 

"  If  they  shake  me  with  the  people,"  said 
the  General,  "  they  should  call  it  the  thirteenth 
labor  of  Hercules." 

"They  should  have  punishment  for  all 
that,"  cried  I. 

"  Sir,  they  shall    be  punished,"     retorted 

the    General.      "  And    as    for     Calhoun,    he 

most    of    all    shall    suffer.      Mark    you  this: 

That  man  shall  never  be  president.     More,  he 

272 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

may  yet  win  Gilderoy's  elevation  at  a  rope's 
end."  This  last  in  wrathful  whisper  like  a 
warning  of  death. 

There  was  spreading  reason  to  talk  on 
Calhoun  and  his  policies.  South  Carolina,  ever 
arrogant,  was  moving  to  snap  rebellious  thumb 
and  finger  in  the  National  face.  The  legisla- 
ture of  that  insolent  commonwealth  had  done 
its  treason  part;  Nullification  and  its  counter- 
part, Secession,  were  already  agreed  on ;  men 
were  being  enrolled  and  arms  collected,  while 
medals  found  Charleston  coinage  bearing  the 
words,  "John  C.  Calhoun,  First  President 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy." 

And  the  restless  spirit  to  animate  it  all  was 
no  other  than  Calhoun  himself.  He  was  then 
among  his  henchmen  of  the  Palmettoes,  direct- 
ing even  the  very  phrases  wherewith  to  deck 
their  traitorous  fulminations.  So  much  the 
General  knew,  not  alone  from  what  Peg  read 
daily  in  the  papers,  but  by  the  weeded  word  of 
ones  whom,  safe  and  prudent,  we  dispatched 
to  find  the  truth. 

And  yet,  in  the  last,  I  was  sure  Calhoun 
would  never  mean  rebellion  and  a  severance  of 
his  state  from  the  common  bonds.  On  such 
terms  he  could  not  succeed  the  General  for  the 
presidency,  which  was  his  invincible  ambition. 
What  Calhoun  hoped  was,  by  a  deafening 
273 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

din  of  threat  on  his  people's  part  of  secession 
and  rebellion,  and  every  whatnot  of  stark 
treason  besides,  to  browbeat  the  General  to  his 
will  of  Nullification ;  and  thus  by  the  one 
stroke  to  so  fix  himself  in  the  van  of  victorious 
sentiment  that  no  one  might  stay  his  march 
of  White  House  conquest.  And  in  good  truth, 
thus  argued  the  General. 

"  But  he  should  beware,"  said  the  General. 
"  Calhoun  and  his  cohorts  shall  not  steal  a 
march  on  the  old  soldier.  They  must  not  go 
too  far.  A  conspiracy  to  do  treason  exists, 
and  Calhoun  is  at  its  head.  But  the  mere  con- 
spiracy is  not  enough.  Marshall  lays  it  down 
how  folk  can  not  think  treason,  can  not  talk 
treason,  and  that  treason  to  be  treason  must 
be  acted.  There  must  be  the  overt  act ;  and 
though  it  be  but  the  act  of  one,  it  attaches  to. 
every  member  of  the  conspiracy  and  becomes 
the  treason  of  all.  If  one  man  so  much  as  snap 
a  South  Carolina  flint,  that  is  an  act  to  fall  within 
the  law,  and  the  treason  is  the  treason  of  Cal- 
houn. I  say,  he  should  take  heed  for  himself ; 
whether  he  know  it  or  no,  the  man  walks  among 
pitfall*." 

"  But  you  should  be  prepared,"  I  said. 

"  We  will  go  upon  the  work  at  once,"  re- 
turned the  General.    "  Winfield  Scott  shall  pro- 
ceed to  Charleston ;  the  fleet  shall  convene  in 
274 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

the  bay;  Castle  Pinckney shall  have  a  hundred 
thousand  stand  of  arms ;  and  we  will  write  to 
our  old  Indian  fighters,  Crockett  and  Coffee 
and  Houston  and  Dale  and  Overton  and  the 
rest,  to  lie  ready  with  one  hundred  thousand 
riflemen  in  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina  to 
overwhelm  these  rebellionists  at  the  dropping 
of  a  handkerchief." 

This  converse,  I  recall,  came  off  one  after- 
noon when  the  General  was  in  more  healthful 
fettle  than  stood  common  during  those  days  of 
fear  for  his  life.  Peg  sat  with  us ;  indeed,  it 
was  news  she  gave  us  from  a  Charleston  paper 
to  bring  down  all  this  talk. 

Peg,  silent  yet  interested,  listened  while 
the  General  laid  out  his  purposes. 

"  And  if  the  Vice-President  were  taken  for 
treason,  what  then?"  asked  Peg  in  a  kind  of 
innocence.  "What  would  you  do  with  him?" 

"  He  shall  hang,  child,"  and  the  General 
spoke  slowly  and  with  a  granite  emphasis ; 
"  he  shall  hang  as  high  as  Haman  I  He  shall 
be  a  lesson  to  traitors  for  all  time." 

It  was  then,  and  for  the  first  time,  as  the 
General  sank  back  spent,  and  in  his  weakness 
almost  consumed  of  his  own  fires,  there  broke 
on  me  the  whole  peril  of  Calhoun.  I  knew  the 
General  too  well  to  distrust  the  execution  of 
his  rope-and-gibbet  threat.  I  was  the  more 
275 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

confirmed  when  that  evening  he  would  have  me 
go  about  a  score  of  letters  ordering  the  readi- 
ness of  those  ships  and  arms  and  men  he  had 
outlined.  A  cordon  of  power  was  to  be  thrown 
about  Calhoun  and  the  ground  beneath  him 
mined  for  his  destruction. 

Now  if  the  General  through  this  long 
summer  grew  to  a  better  acquaintance  with 
Peg,  the  same  also  might  be  told  of  me.  And 
hardly  a  day  was  to  dawn  and  die  when  in  the 
unique  turns  and  twists  of  her  manifold  nature 
she  would  not  come  upon  me  in  a  novel  light. 
She  was  never  to  be  twice  the  same,  and  my 
sluggish  apprehension  could  scarce  keep  pace 
with  the  changes  of  her. 

For  a  specimen,  then,  of  how  she  would 
stand  against  me  over  a  wrong  claim,  and  her 
skill  in  its  defence.  One  morning  she  had 
drawn  me  off  to  the  northward  for  a  walk. 
The  day  was  by  no  means  sultry,  and  a  breeze 
was  blowing  and  so  induced  a  temperature 
which  made  the  exercise  a  joy.  We  were 
rambling  through  a  deep  valley — Peg  and  I— 
which  was  the  home  of  a  brawling  rivulet,  and 
making  a  slow  journey  of  it,  since  the  way, 
broken  by  boulders  and  sown  with  thickets  in 
between,  was  something  of  the  roughest.  While 
about  this  pleasant  toil  Peg  broke  forth : 

"Do  you  see  that  vine?"  Here  she 
276 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

pointed  to  a  creeper,  luxuriant  and  rich,  which, 
failing  of  support  to  climb  by,  ran  all  about  on 
the  ground.  "  That  vine  is  like  me.  It  needs 
a  trellis — asks  some  tall  and  strong  tree  to 
clasp  and  love  and  grow  upon.  Given  a  tree  to 
touch  the  heavens,  that  loving  vine  would  climb 
upward  to  kiss  the  heavens  with  her  tree. 
Wanting  her  tree — poor  vine  ! — she  grovels 
about  the  ground.  That  vine  and  I  are  the 
same." 

To  this  I  offered  no  response,  for  I  could 
not  see  how  the  matter  called  for  debate ;  and 
then  her  fancy  was  like  unto  a  shooting  star, 
and  no  one  might  foresee  its  flight  or  prophesy 
its  course.  However,  Peg  did  not  ask  reply. 
Away  she  plunged  in  a  new  direction. 

"  Should  one  control  his  love,  to  send  it 
here  or  there  like  a  dog?" 

"Why,"  said  I,  "the  thing  is  out  of  the 
question.  One's  love  is  not  a  creature  of  bit 
and  bridle,  to  be  guided  as  one  guides  a  horse. 
I  should  say  that  no  one  controls  his  love,  but 
is  controlled  by  it." 

"  See  there,  now !  A  second  Daniel !"  cried 
Peg,  with  a  little  flicker  of  derision.  For  all 
that,  I  could  tell  how  she  agreed  with  me.  She 
went  on :  "  Then  one  is  not  to  blame  how  one's 
love  wanders,  since  one  has  it  in  no  leading- 
string.  Should  one  marry  without  love?" 
277 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

"  Of  a  verity  I  no,"  I  retorted.  "  It  would 
be  to  cheat  the  other  of  every  chance  of  hap- 
piness." 

"  If  one  be  not  to  blame,"  said  Peg,  in  a 
wandering  way  of  talk,  "if  one  be  not  to  blame 
for  the  birth  of  one's  love,  neither  should  one 
be  blamed  for  its  death.  And  if  one  is  not  to 
marry  without  love,  one  should  not  continue, 
the  wife  with  the  husband  nor  he  with  her,  when 
love  has  met  its  end.  You  yourself  have  shown 
me  the  wrong  of  that.  Ah,  watch-dog !  am  I 
not  right?" 

"Now,  in  all  my  days,"  said  I,  "  I  have  not 
been  made  to  talk  so  much  on  love.  The  ques- 
tion is  above  me." 

"  You  said  folk  should  not  wed  wanting 
love."  Peg  paused  to  stamp  her  foot  at  me 
in  saucy  vehemence.  "  If  that  be  true,  then 
folk  should  not  remain  wedded  wanting  love. 
Do  you  not  think,  if  a  wife  were  to  cease  to 
love  her  husband,  she  should  leave  him  ?  Does 
she  not  owe  him  that  duty?  And  you  have 
said,  watch-dog,  as  you  shall  not  forget,  that 
her  love,  too,  is  not  her  fault." 

"  Still,  I  should  deem  it  great  pity,"  said  I, 
"were  a  wife  to  leave  her  husband." 

"  And  that  is  mighty  loyal  to  your  friend," 
cried  Peg,  in  a  hot  spurt  of  indignation.  "  Did 
not  the  General's  wife  leave  a  husband  for  him? 
278 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

It  was  well  for  both  her  and  him  they  did  not 
consult  with  you.  She  might  have  been  un- 
happy yet,  and  he  never  happy  at  all."  Then, 
gravely,  following  a  pause :  "  watch-dog,  you 
are  dull  beyond  description." 

When  I  reflected  on  my  blind  inference  of 
criticism  against  the  General,  and  his  wife  in 
her  grave,  I  was  willing  to  concede  as  much. 
However,  I  took  refuge  in  saying  nothing, 
waiting  for  my  blunder  to  blow  by. 

After  a  moment,  and  as  we  walked  in  a 
wide  grassy  place  side  by  side,  Peg  took  up 
my  hand.  Finding  the  round,  white  mark 
where  the  wound  of  her  leopard  tooth  had 
healed,  she  gazed  on  it  a  moment  and  sighed. 
Then,  before  I  could  stay  her,  she  kissed  it. 

"Peg's  mark!"  she  exclaimed,  as  though 
she  conversed  with  her  thoughts  ;  "  Peg's  mark 
for  her  slave!"  Then  lifting  up  her  eyes  to 
mine:  "I  love  that  mark;  so  much  of  you  I 
love."  Then  hiding  a  rogue  of  a  smile  which 
began  to  creep  about  the  corners  of  her  mouth, 
for  she  would  be  amused,  it  would  seem,  over 
the  confusion  into  which  her  caress  had  thrown 
me — "Tell  me,  slave,  do  you  not  wish  now  it 
were  a  great  hideous  scar  to  overwhelm  you?" 

"And  wherefore?"  I  asked.     I  could  see 
how  she  meant  to  tease  me  with  her  mockeries, 
and  would  give  her  no  answer  to  go  upon.    "  I 
279 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

regard  that  as  a  very  excellent  scar  as  it  is," 
said  I.  "  I  would  not  have  it  larger  for  a  good 
deal." 

"  Oh,  believe  me,"  cried  Peg,  her  nose  to 
the  sky  in  a  moment:  "  I  would  not  make  it 
larger  for  the  world." 

With  that,  and  wearing  a  mighty  air  of  in- 
sult, she  went  about  swiftly,  and  never  a  sylla- 
ble for  good  or  ill  could  I  bring  from  her  until 
we  reached  her  house.  At  the  gate  she  paused 
and  offered  me  her  old,  teasing  look. 

"  Do  you  pray,  watch-dog  ?"  said  she. 

"I  cannot  make  that  boast,"  I  replied. 

"You  should  begin  at  once,"  she  retorted. 
"  You  should  pray  for  quickness  and  a  little 
wit."  Then,  seeing  me  to  rummage  about  in 
my  thoughts  for  a  clue  to  this:  "  But  have  no 
fear,  watch-dog;  I  shall  never  let  the  General 
know  how  you  condemned  his  wife." 

This  gave  me  ease  again,  for  then  I  caught 
her  meaning.  However,  I  needed  no  such  as- 
surance, since  I  knew  of  none  to  own  Peg's 
tact,  or  one  less  likely  to  go  upon  that  error 
with  the  General  she  would  pledge  me  her  word 
to  avoid. 

The  summer  was  running  into  autumn  and 

the  General  no  better.     There  had  been  good 

days  and  bad  days,  and  for  weeks  on  end  we  were 

made  to  swing   between  hope  and  fear  like  a 

280 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

pendulum.  And  I  believe  he  would  have  died, 
too,  if  it  had  not  been  for  Peg  to  tend  upon 
his  pillow  like  a  daughter.  What  a  joy  I  had 
of  the  girl !  My  soul  would  fair  reach  out  to 
take  her  in  its  arms  for  that  tireless  affection 
wherewith  she  surrounded  him.  While  she  could 
help,  she  was  about  him  like  an  angel ;  when  he 
turned  his  head  for  a  little  rest,  she  would  be 
with  me  in  her  big  chair  by  my  desk. 

And  yet,  when  the  days  drew  on  themselves 
the  coolness  of  October,  and  one  should  have 
looked  for  him  to  mend,  the  General  fell  sud- 
denly away  to  the  last  flicker  of  his  strength 
like  a  candle  burning  out.  It  was  then  the  doctor 
gave  him  that  warning  how  his  time  was  near, 
and  put  us  upon  our  guard  to  meet  the  worst. 
I  may  tell  you  my  heart  was  as  so  much  wood 
under  my  ribs,  and  gloom  dwelt  in  the  house 
like  a  ghost. 

It  will  have  somewhat  a  foolish  sound, 
but,  as  I  live  by  bread  I  think  it  was  our  Peg 
to  save  the  General  out  from  between  the  paws 
of  death.  Not  by  her  care,  though  that  was 
above  description,  but  rather  with  a  thought 
she  one  day  laid  upon  him. 

"  Child,  I  shall   surely   die,"  the  General 

was    saying.      "  I  have  thought   so  more  than 

once  during  my  rough  life  ;  but  this  time  is  my 

first  to  really  know.    Now  I  see  that  I  shall  die." 

281 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

Then  he  asked  her  to  read  a  song  from  the 
hymn-book  of  his  wife.  "  They  are  always  an 
ease  to  me,"  he  said. 

Peg's  eyes  were  running  tears,  and  she  had 
her  work  cut  out  to  smother  her  sobs.  For  all 
that,  she  bore  bravely  up. 

"You  will  not  die,"  cried  Peg.  "And  I 
shall  read  you,  instead  of  hymns,  how  the  Vice- 
President  means  to  pull  the  country  to  pieces 
with  his  Charleston  plots.  Will  you  die  and 
make  him  president  in  your  stead — endow  him 
with  the  power  for  his  treasons?" 

Peg  told  me  how  she  had  no  design  in  say- 
ing this,  and  that  Calhoun  was  in  her  mouth  no 
more  than  an  exclamation.  And  yet  had  it  been 
the  prescription  of  a  whole  college  of  doctors, 
it  could  not  have  exerted  a  wholesomer  effect. 

The  General  had  told  me  he  would  die ; 
and  I  had  stood  in  daily  terror  of  it ;  and  yet 
neither  had  once  fallen  to  consider — and  this 
smacks  of  the  foolish  for  both  of  us — how  his 
death  would  raise  up  Calhoun  to  take  his  place. 
The  truth  is,  I  could  never  bring  myself  to 
plan  or  look  beyond  the  General's  death ;  my 
thought,  however  fear-spurred,  would  run  no 
farther  than  just  his  death ;  there  it  would  stop 
nor  budge  a  pace  beyond.  The  General's  death 
would  seem  the  end  of  things,  as  it  might  be  a 
second  deluge.  And  perhaps  he,  himself,  fell 
282 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

into  similar  frame ;  only  with  him  it  was  but 
his  building  on  that  all-swallowing  hope  of 
meeting  with  his  Saint  Rachel,  never  again  to 
be  parted.  That  crowded  out  all  else. 

Letting  conjecturings  go  adrift,  however, 
the  bald  fact  remains  that  it  was  Peg,  after  all, 
who  came  first  to  make  us  take  a  thought  in 
advance  and  consider  where  the  General's  going 
would  place  the  country  with  Calhoun.  I  re- 
member how  the  General  lay  back  on  his  pillow 
after  Peg's  outburst  of  warning ;  and  next  how 
his  glance  began  to  collect  its  old-time  fire. 

u  By  the  Eternal!" — this  in  a  whisper — "  I 
will  not  die  and  leave  the  people  helpless  with 
those  traitors.  I  must  either  live  my  term  out, 
or  live  till  I  hang  Calhoun.  The  country  must 
be  safe  before  I  go." 

From  that  moment  he  would  not  speak  of 
dying,  but  only  of  getting  well  and  living ;  and 
each  day  he  made  visible  stages  towards  a  bet- 
ter strength,  and  would  sit  up  longer,  and 
would  demand  that  we  do  some  work.  I  can 
not  say  I  witnessed  these  efforts  without  trem- 
bling; he  might  break  himself  down  to  death's 
door  with  this  sudden  load  of  labor.  But  no, 
he  would  go  on;  and  no  harm  to  come  of  it, 
but  only  good,  for  within  the  four  weeks  to 
follow  Peg's  inspired  exhortation — for  I  shall 
ever  think  of  her  as  one  inspired  of  heaven  to 
283 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

call  the  General  back  from  death — he  could  be 
looked  on  as  a  hale  man,  one  sound  and  in  a 
plight  of  safety. 

Also,  his  old  fierceness  began  again  to 
burn;  he  would  bicker  with  me  viciously — a 
thing  laid  aside  for  months.  It  comes  back  to 
me  how,  at  the  tail  end  of  that  sickness,  his  first 
words  of  opposition  to  something  I  proposed 
fell  on  my  ears  like  a  concord  of  sweet  sounds. 
I  could  thank  God  in  my  heart  to  hear  his 
anger,  for  now  I  knew  he  was  surely  upon 
health's  own  highroad.  And  so  he  was. 

There  came  another  thing  of  moment  to 
find  its  cause  in  the  General's  illness,  and  that 
death  it  would  threaten.  The  word  had  gone 
about  the  town  that  the  General  was  in  his  last 
throes,  or  nearly ;  and  at  that,  the  thought 
giving  a  mean  courage  to  the  man,  in  the 
midst  of  this  bad  news  our  port  wine  Duff 
Green  came  upon  us  with  a  long  editorial  com- 
parison of  Calhoun  with  Van  Buren,  wherein 
tne  latter  was  lashed  and  the  other  uplifted 
to  the  blue  dome.  The  article  was  nothing 
strong  or  well  considered — a  mere  black  thing 
of  froth  and  poison ! — and  served  no  purpose 
beyond  marking  Duff  Green's  friendship  in 
one  quarter  and  his  enmity  in  another. 

It  was  Peg,  who  had  taken  charge  of  our 
newspapers,  to  call  our  eyes  to  the  business. 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

Peg's  indignation  ran  high,  for  she  was  a 
tireless  adherent  of  her  "  good  little  secre- 
tary," who  would  be  her  ally  against  Mrs. 
Calhoun. 

"Listen  to  this  wretch  1"  cried  Peg,  as 
with  the  paper  in  her  little  claw  she  burst  upon 
the  General  and  me. 

Thereupon  she  gave  us  the  English  of  it, 
and  being  strung  with  anger,  flourished  it  off 
with  much  spirit  and  effect. 

While  the  General  bent  quiet  ear,  his  brow 
lowered  and  his  own  anger  began  to  run  with 
Peg's. 

"  The  scoundrel  speaks  of  Van  Buren," 
said  the  General,  when  Peg  was  done;  "  but  he 
means  me.  And  so  he  applauds  Calhoun  I 
Then  let  him  follow  his  applause  for  his  sup- 
port." Then,  to  me  directly:  "Did  you  not 
in  the  beginning  speak  of  calling  Blair  to 
found  a  paper  ?  Write  to  him  ;  bid  him  come 
at  once.  This  Duff  Green  has  done  enough 
for  punishment,  and  we  will  go  about  his  des- 
tinies in  ways  not  soon  to  be  forgot." 

Within  the  hour,  a  word  was  on  the  road 
to  Blair  in  Frankfort ;  a  word  to  become  at 
once  the  death-warrant  of  Duff  Green's  Tele- 
graph and  the  reason  of  Blair's  Globe,  which 
last,  as  the  General  once  said,  grew  up  in  a 
285 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

night  like  any  Jonah's  gourd,  to  cast  a  long, 
important  shadow  in  affairs. 

Duff  Green,  as  if  to  observe  the  effect  of 
his  Calhoun-Van  Buren  shot,  would  call  upon 
the  General.  It  was  my  guardian  Jim  who  told 
me  of  that  visit. 

"I  was  sort  o'  knockin'  'round,"  said  Jim, 
"like  a  blind  dog  in  a  meat  shop,  when  dish 
yere  Duff  Green  gentleman  tells  me  to  give 
you  '  Howdy !'  an'  say  he's  waitin'  to  see  you- 
all." 

"Where  is  he?"  I  asked. 

"  He's  pervadin'  about  d'big  Eas'  Room," 
returned  Jim,  "when  I  'bandons  him." 

Duff  Green  extended  his  fishy  hand ;  but  I 
did  not  see  it,  my  eyes  being  employed  upon 
his  face ;  and  that  with  so  cold  an  industry  it 
served  to  turn  the  violin  red  of  it  to  apoplectic 
purple  for  uneasiness  and  rage. 

"  I  offer  you  my  hand,  sir,"  cried  Duff. 

"  Sir,"  said  I,  "  in  requital,  I  offer  you  a 
sentence  of  counsel.  Be  out  of  that  door,  and 
do  not  enter  it  again  until  your  friend  Calhoun 
is  master  in  this  house.  But  stay ;  I  have  an- 
other order  for  your  ear.  Do  not,  by  word  or 
look  or  act,  whether  to  me  or  to  any  man, 
make  claim  on  my  acquaintance.  I  will  not 
agree  as  to  the  measure  of  my  resentment  in 
case  you  do." 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

"  Sir,  is  this  an  insult?" 

"  Sir,  you  will  please  yourself  for  a  term." 

"And,  sir," — Duff  Green's  voice  quavered 
a  trifle — "  am  I  to  consider  this  the  action  of 
the  president  ?" 

"  I  think  it  would  be  wise  to  do  so,"  I  re- 
torted, "  since  you  would  seem  to  stand  even 
lower  in  his  graces  than  you  do  in  mine.  I 
argue  this  from  a  comparison  of  our  remarks 
upon  you."  I  was  enough  the  savage  to  de- 
light in  harassing  the  pursy  Duff  and  in  dimin- 
ishing his  brow  of  consequence.  "  I  did  but 
casually  describe  you — being  idle  at  the  time — 
as  a  bloated  spider,  sucking  patronage,  and 
with  a  newspaper  to  be  your  web,  when  he 
would  correct  me.  '  You  do  the  dog  a  com- 
pliment,' said  he.  '  Now,  one  might  conceive 
of  a  spider  that  should  be  of  some  moment. 
He  whom  we  call  Duff  Green  is  no  such  thing. 
He  is  nothing  ;  or  at  most  a  vacuum,  which  is 
nothingness  given  a  name — as  it  were,  an  im- 
ponderous  absence  of  overpowering  unimport- 
ance.'" 

"  Them's  mighty  fine  words,  Marse  Major, 
you-all  flings  loose,"  said  Jim,  when  Duff 
Green  quit  the  field.  Jim,  whose  care  con- 
cerning me  was  only  equaled  by  his  curiosity, 
stood,  of  course,  in  close  attendance  upon  the 
colloquy.  "  Yas-sir,"  he  continued,  "  them's 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

what  Jim  calls  langwidge  of  d'good  ol'  Cum- 
berland kind.  That  Duff  Green  gentleman 
shore  misses  it  a  mile  when  he  comes  pawin' 
'round  for  to  'spute  with  you.  Yes,  indeed, 
Marse  Major,  that's  whar  he  drap  his  water- 
million!" 

When  I  repeated  my  interview  with  Duff 
to  the  General,  together  with  Jim's  comments 
of  admiration,  and  we  had  had  our  laugh,  the 
General  turned  serious: 

"  Major,"  said  he,  "  I've  been  thinking.  I 
may  yet  die,  and  the  rule  we  made  that  no  one 
of  my  cabinet  shall  succeed  me  when  my  term 
is  done  turns  now  to  be  no  good  rule.  It 
strengthens  Calhoun.  Also,  it  is  he  to  set  his 
dog  of  a  Duff  against  Van  Buren  because  the 
latter  would  buckler  Peg.  I'm  too  much 
broken  and  too  weak  for  talk,  and  I  need  not 
repeat  the  reasons  for  such  step.  It's  on  my 
heart,  however,  to  set  the  ball  in  motion  for 
Van  Buren  to  have  this  place  when  my  term  is 
done." 

"And  how  would  you  proceed?"  said  I. 
"  For  myself,  nothing  could  be  better  to  my 
taste." 

"This    is   my  notion,"  said  the  General. 

"  Let  us  write  to  Overton,  setting  forth — with 

a   cloud   of   other  matter  to   be  a  cover — the 

presidential  fitness  of  Van  Buren  in  his  every 

288 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

line.  This  shall  be  a  secret  between  Overton 
and  us.  The  letter  will  be  wanted  only  in  event 
of  my  death,  for  while  I  live  Calhoun  shall 
never  have  the  White  House.  If  I  die,  why 
there's  my  name  to  it  for  Van  Buren  against 
the  world.  And  let  me  tell  you,  sir,  I  much 
mistake  my  place  with  the  people  if  my  dead 
word  be  not  of  greater  weight  with  them, 
aye !  if  it  do  not  move  them  far  beyond  any 
potency  to  be  latent  in  the  living  name 
Calhoun." 

We  made  no  pause  about  it,  the  General 
and  I,  and  as  soon  as  saddle-bags  might  carry, 
Overton  received  the  missive  which  the  Gen- 
eral had  described.  It  was  never  wanted,  for 
the  General  did  not  die ;  but  there  it  lay  in  the 
hands  of  Overton,  and  the  word-for-word  blood 
brother  to  it  in  my  own,  ready  like  a  grim  re- 
serve to  take  his  place  in  battle  against  Cal- 
houn should  the  General  be  stricken  down. 

And  thus,  during  our  first  summer  and 
autumn,  did  the  General  and  I,  with  caution 
and  wise  concern,  coil  down  and  clear  our  po- 
litical decks  for  the  great  wars  we  knew  were 
at  hand.  Defeat  for  our  enemies ;  triumph  for 
our  friends ;  those  were  our  watchwords. 

You  may  believe  I  went  into  November  and 
looked  winterward  with  a  load  off  my  soul,  when 
now  the  General's  health  was  come  back;  and 
289 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

with  it  his  temper  to  wrangle  and  clash  with 
me ;  also  his  mighty  heart  was  restored,  hot  as 
Hecla  and  as  volcanic,  against  those  who,  mon- 
gering  Nullification,  would  forge  a  Calhoun 
treason  down  among  the  rice  fields. 

As  for  Peg,  there  stood  no  limit  to  her 
satisfaction  when  the  fight  for  the  General's 
life  was  won,  and  he  in  fairer  health  than  at  any 
hour  since  we  came. 

44  And,  child,  it  was  you  who  saved  me," 
said  the  General,  lifting  up  Peg's  chin  with  his 
thin  hand.  "  Do  you  think  I  shall  forget 
that?" 

Now  the  town  began  to  regain  its  own,  and 
folk  came  straggling  in  from  beach  and  hill  and 
dale.  Noah,  too,  was  down  from  New  York, 
he  and  his  graceful  Hercules,  Rivera;  and,  as 
the  town  filled,  Peg's  spirits  would  put  on 
spurs,  and  she  never  was  more  blithe  and  high 
than  now  when  we  drew  close  to  that  struggle 
of  the  drawing  rooms  wherein  she  so  planned 
to  have  a  leading  portion. 

One  day,  however,  she  would  seem  not 
quite  so  gay  as  common,  but  with  a  haze  of 
thought  about  those  eyes,  which  of  late — with 
the  General  strong  and  above  the  need  of  drugs 
— had  danced  and  sparkled.  Peg  had  brought 
me  a  posy  of  flowers  for  my  desk. 

44  Are  they  not  beautiful?"  she  asked,  4<  I 
290 


THE  GENERAL  SELECTS  His  SUCCESSOR 

love  the  flowers ;  so  sweet,  so  contented  on 
their  stems  among  the  leaves  !  Are  they  not 
beautiful?" 

"  And  how  will  I  see  flowers  while  you 
are  in  the  place?"  said  I. 

This  was  to  cure  her  out  of  her  sadness, 
which,  for  all  her  words  about  the  flowers,  hung 
over  her  face  like  a  mist. 

"  Now,  see  how  well  you  said  that !"  cried 
Peg,  brightening  a  little  and  turning  me  her 
droll  look.  "Was  it  prepared?  Was  it  spon- 
taneous ?  Really,  slave,  were  you  to  go  on  like 
that  for  a  year,  or  say  for  two,  my  hope  might 
revive  over  you."  This  lightly,  and  to  step  off 
her  tongue  with  foot  of  air.  Then,  for  my 
bewilderment  beyond  hope,  she  without  warn- 
ing breaks  into  tears.  And  next,  to  be  a  cap- 
sheaf  on  my  shocked  amazement,  she  gives  me 
this  at  the  door,  to  which  she  cries  her  way 
blindly  :  "  My  husband  will  be  home  to-night !" 
And  with  that  she  leaves  me  helplessly  to  won- 
der was  there  ever  born  upon  this  earth,  to  be 
a  beautiful  woman  and  turn  folk  mad,  such  an- 
other confusing  tangle  as  this  Peg  of  ours ! 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   MAJOR    AND    PEG   AT    CROSSES 

Next  morning  I  went  straight  into  the  midst 
of  my  correspondence  and  began  tossing  it  on 
my  pen  as  husbandmen  toss  hay.  There  rang 
no  unusual  call  for  this  energy  of  ink,  but  the 
whole  truth  was  that,  flying  like  a  fugitive  be- 
fore pursuing  thoughts  of  Peg — I  may  tell  you 
they  had  a  fine  dance  about  my  pillow  the 
night  before ! — I  would  make  a  refuge  of  my 
work. 

Long  ago  I  had  given  up  the  hope  of 
solving  Peg  in  her  vagaries.  One  would  never 
know  where  or  when  or  how  to  lay  hold  on  her, 
for  she  came  to  one  new  and  new  each  day. 
Wayward,  erratic,  now  fierce  and  now  tender, 
now  in  laughter  and  now  in  tears,  one  might 
not  count  on  her  moods  in  their  direction  more 
than  on  the  flight  of  birds.  The  one  only 
thing  one  might  be  sure  of  concerning  Peg  was 
that  one  was  sure  of  nothing. 

It  was  the  thought  of  those  tears  for  the 
home-coming  of  Eaton  which  would  storm  me 
292 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

down  and  have  me  captive  for  all  I  might  barri- 
cade with  pen  and  ink.  What  should  they  pro- 
claim? That  Peg  was  unhappy,  truly,  since 
folk  do  not  weep  for  mirth.  In  a  way  I  was 
daunted  of  my  honor  as  I  went  about  these 
thoughts ;  it  seemed  a  trustless  thing  to  dwell 
on  Peg  and  her  wedded  life.  And  I  would 
fight  against  it;  and  still  it  pinned  and  held 
me.  In  the  last  of  it  I  was  claimed  by  the  con- 
clusion that  Peg  found  existence  grievously 
dark,  for  what  else  should  be  headwaters  for 
those  tears?  Also,  I  resolved  that  I  would 
coldly  look  the  question  of  her  grief  in  the 
face  ;  it  might  turn  the  better  for  both  of  us 
to  lay  hands  upon  its  cause.  I  was  given  the 
more  courage  for  this  scrutiny  since  I  had  not 
forgotten  how  Peg  named  me  to  be  her  only 
confidant;  that  word  put  a  trust  upon  me  and 
made  my  question-asking  a  kind  of  duty. 

As  thread  by  thread  I  lifted  up  the  in- 
quiry of  Peg's  sorrow,  the  truth  would  begin 
to  make  itself  plain  to  me.  Eaton  was  some- 
thing gross,  and  mayhap  in  his  finer  senses  not 
unnumbed  of  the  bowl.  He  could  not  value 
Peg — she,  a  perfumed  spirit  thing  of  music 
and  color  and  fire  and  light !  And  Peg  would 
feel  his  lack  of  appreciation ;  it  would  wring 
her  heart,  stab  her  like  a  dagger.  Verily,  I 
came  by  a  great  freshness  when  now  I  was  on 
293 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

the  right  scent  of  it.  This,  it  was,  to  lie  at  the 
root  of  her  meaning  when  she  showed  me  that 
vine  trailing  its  rich  beauties  along  the  ground, 
instead  of  climbing,  and  said,  "  I  am  like  that 
vine."  The  prone  and  earth-held  soul  of 
Eaton  offered  her  no  trellis. 

And  so  Peg  mourned  her  lost  estate  of 
love!  And  why  should  she  not  mourn?  she, 
thus  swindled  of  a  rightful  destiny !  Peg  shone 
a  thing  of  beauty  to  deck  a  heaven  with ;  and 
here  was  she  fated  to  be  the  jewel  in  the  dulled 
head  of  a  toad !  Why  should  her  sorrow  find 
rebuke  ?  Born  to  be  the  reason  of  admiration 
and  to  feed  on  it  as  a  flower  feeds  on  the  sun, 
the  irony  of  accident  had  flung  her  into  this 
chill  corner  of  neglect.  And  her  love  was 
dying — starving  away  its  life.  Peg  did  not 
love  Eaton;  the  yoke  galled  her — yoking  her 
as  it  did  to  one  who,  while  perhaps  owning  the 
affections,  the  integrity,  the  loyalty,  owned  also 
tne  low  unelevation  of  the  brute.  And  for 
that,  Peg  would  stay  behind  when  Eaton  went 
away  and  weep  to  see  him  coming. 

While,  with  some  fondness  for  the  argu- 
ment— since  it  would  make  for  Peg's  exonera- 
tion— I  was  moving  to  these  conclusions,  it  ran 
abruptly  over  me  how,  during  our  first  talk  in 
the  parlors  of  the  Indian  Queen,  Peg's  eyes 
would  seem  to  swim  in  love  for  Eaton.  I  re- 

294 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

called  her  cry  of  pain  when  she  feared  he  might 
be  shamed  for  her,  and  how  she  said  she  would 
sooner  die  than  that.  Then,  surely,  Peg  must 
have  loved  him ;  nor  had  he  changed  since 
then. 

These  memories  were  sent  to  baffle  me; 
but  with  a  second  thought  the  fallacy  of  such 
deductions  was  laid  bare.  When,  in  the  In- 
dian Queen,  Peg  would  weep  for  love  of  Eaton, 
she  was  but  the  bride  of  a  month.  She  stood 
yet  in  the  haze  of  the  honeymoon,  and  had 
been  given  no  frank  outline  of  her  mate.  Then 
he  seemed  what  he  should  be,  not  what  he 
was,  and  Hope,  not  Truth,  was  painter  to  the 
picture. 

Yes,  it  would  walk  before  me  right 
enough ;  Eaton  had  been  a  lover  of  gold  to 
become  a  husband  of  brass.  Peg  was  as  much 
wasted  on  him  as  though  one  put  a  love  verse 
from  Herrick  into  the  hands  of  a  Seminole  of 
the  Everglades.  In  his  arms  she  was  an  error 
—a  solecism — a  crime — as  it  might  be,  a  lily  on 
a  muck-heap ! 

These  thoughts  so  played  the  tyrant  with 
me  as  to  take  the  pen  from  between  my 
fingers ;  I  could  do  no  work,  but  only  sit  and 
stare  from  the  window  while  my  mind  ran  away 
to  Peg. 

295 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

Then  I  resolved  to  call  Peg  over;  she 
should  adorn  her  throne  at  my  desk's  end ;  I 
would  show  her  how,  for  all  that  cloudiness  of 
sensibility  on  the  part  of  another,  there  still 
lived  one  on  whom  her  sweet  fineness  was  not 
thrown  away.  I  would  dispatch  her  a  note  by 
Jim ;  I  would  crave  her  help  for  my  mails. 
This  should  bring  her,  and  be  a  fair  excuse 
besides,  since  it  was  not  the  beginning  of  such 
requests.  Peg  had  often  aided  me  to  get  my 
letters  off. 

Note  in  hand  and  ready,  I  stepped  to  the 
rear  of  the  mansion  to  summon  Jim.  I  could 
hear  his  high,  patronizing  tones,  evidently  em- 
ployed about  the  instruction  of  the  cook.  The 
two  were  close  by  a  rear  door  that  opened  into 
the  kitchen. 

"  Yassir,"  I  heard  Jim  say,  "  they  has  black 
bass  in  d'Cumberland,  shoals  an'  shoals  of  'em. 
How  much  you  reckon  that  one  weigh?"  Ap- 
parently they  had  a  Potomac  fish  between  them 
to  be  the  basis  of  discussion.  "  How  much 
that  weigh?  Five  pounds?  You  hyar  me, 
son,  we  uses  that  size  fish  for  bait  back  in 
Tennessee.  Do  Jim  ever  catch  a  bigger  one? 
Say;  if  Jim  don't  catch  a  bass  in  d'ol'  Cum- 
berland that's  bigger  than  a  cow,  then  Jim'll 
jine  d'church  !  It  was  a  heap  excitin',  cotchin' 
that  fish.  He  grab  d'hook;  an'  then  he  jes' 
296 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

nacherally  split  up  an'  down  d'river  like  oP 
Satan  was  arter  him  for  dinner;  an'  then  he 
done  dives.  That's  whar  he  leads  d'wrong 
kyard  ;  for  he  bump  his  nose,  blim  I  on  d'rock 
bottom ;  an'  it  hurt  him  so  he  jes'  turn,  an' 
next  he  comes  lippin'  up  through  d'top  of 
d'water  an'  goes  soarin'  off  up  into  d'air  for 
fifty  foot.  That's  when  Jim  sees  how  big  he 
is.  When  he  gets  up  into  d'atmosphere,  he 
sort  o'  shuck  himse'f,  same  as  you-all  sees  a 
hen  waller  in  d'dust ;  an',  son,  you  could  hear 
his  scales  rattle  like  shakin'  buckshot  in  a 
bottle  I  An'  at  d'same  time,  that  bass  lams 
loose  a  yell  folk  might  nacherally  hear  a  mile> 
an'  which  shorely  sounds  like  d'squall  of  a 
soul  in  torment.  You  hyar  Jim  !  that  bass — " 

At  this,  I  broke  in  on  the  revelations  of 
our  black  Munchausen  with  my  demands.  As 
he  turned,  I  heard  him  call  back: 

"  No,  I  don't  get  him ;  he  done  bruk 
d'hook." 

Peg  and  I  had  been  worthily  busy  with  my 
letters  for  full  ten  minutes.  She  was,  for  her, 
very  quiet,  almost  indeed  to  the  line  of  a  grave 
sadness,  which  after  all  should  be  the  aftermath 
of  those  tears  of  the  day  before. 

If  Peg  were  wordless,  I,  on  my  side,  sat 
equally  without  conversation.  We  made  tongue- 
less  company;  but  for  that  very  reason  went 
297 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

with  all  the  more  earnestness  to  the  letters  as 
though  they  were  the  seeds  of  this  silence. 

"Well?"  said  Peg,  with  a  suddeness, 
her  hands  in  her  lap.  I  stared.  "Well?" 
she  repeated.  Then,  when  I  said  nothing,  she 
would  elaborate  a  bit.  "Well,  watch-dog, 
what  would  you  have  ?  You  know  these  let- 
ters were  the  merest  pretext  for  me  to  come." 

"Why,  then,"  said  I,  made  desperate  be- 
cause she  snatched  away  my  disguise,  "  why, 
then,  I  was  in  a  fret  to  look  on  you." 

"Was  it  that?" 

"  Sometimes  I  fear  your  husband  does 
not  wholly  understand  you.  "  It  took  courage 
to  go  thus  far;  it  marked  a  point  mightily  for- 
ward of  any  attained  to  in  former  talks. 

Peg  gave  me  one  of  those  fathomless  looks, 
narrowing  her  brow  whimsically.  My  blunt- 
ness  had  not  dashed  her  spirit,  at  any  rate ;  in- 
deed, it  would  seem  to  have  raised  it. 

"  You  fear  my  husband  does  not  understand 
me  ?"  repeated  Peg.  Now  she  paused  an  end- 
less while,  her  eyes  reading  mine  like  print.  I 
could  feel  her  searching  me  for  my  last  prom- 
ise of  expression.  "  You  fear  my  husband  does 
not  understand  me.  And  is  he  to  be  the  only 
one  ?  Is  it  there  the  roll-call  ends  ?  If  that 
were  true,  I  might  sustain  myself."  For  all  a 
shadowy,  vague  piquancy  of  brow,  Peg  got 
298 


THE   MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

this  off  wearily  enough,  and  I  still  prisoner  to 
her  eyes.  Now,  after  a  moment,  her  vivacity 
would  mount  a  little.  "You  are  right,"  she 
went  on,  "  I  am  not  much  understood."  A  smile 
peeped  from  the  dimple  in  her  cheek.  "  What 
would  you  think,  watch-dog,  were  I  to  give 
thick  folk  lessons  in  myself — expound  myself 
to  dunces  as  your  pedagogue  gives  lessons  in 
a  book?" 

"The  lessons  you  propose  should  be  mar- 
vellously sweet,"  said  I.  Then,  with  some  tinc- 
ture of  my  better  courage :  "  By  my  soul's 
hope  !  I  should  be  sure  to  go  to  school  for  those 
lessons." 

"Ah  I  do  you  challenge  me?"  cried  Peg. 
Now  it  would  be  the  old  Peg.  "  From  this 
hour  you  begin  your  studies.  Life  shall  be  a 
never-ending  lesson,  and  Peg  the  lesson." 

"  And  I  a  student  most  diligent." 

Peg  came  and  stood  close  against  my 
shoulder  where  I  sat  at  the  desk.  Her  color 
and  her  brightness  had  returned  to  chase  away 
the  shadows.  With  her  fingers  she  parted  my 
hair  where  the  frosts  of  two  score  years  and 
four  were  beginning  their  blight.  She  made 
as  though  she  considered  these  ravages  of 
silver. 

Finally,  she  spoke  to  me  in  a  way  tenderly 
good. 

299  _j 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  Watch-dog,  watch-dog,  you  have  eyes 
in  your  head  and  none  in  your  wits.  You  are 
a  blind-wit,  watch-dog,  a  blind-wit  of  no  hope. 
And  you  would  study  Peg  ?  Teach  I  never  so 
lucidly,  study  thou  never  so  long,  yet  shouldst 
thou  never  know  Peg,  but  die  in  darkness  of 
her."  Peg  said  this  with  a  kind  of  murmur  of 
regret.  Then,  collecting  direction:  "How 
many  times  has  Peg  been  with  you  ?  And  yet 
you  have  never  seen  her — never  once  seen  Peg. 
You  do  not  see  Peg  now  while  she  stands  at 
your  shoulder.  You  are  a  blind-wit." 

"  If  I  have  not  seen  Peg,"  said  I,  "  and  if 
I  do  not  now  see  Peg,  then  at  the  least  my  eyes 
have  tasted  visions  above  report." 

"  Now  you  speak  well,"  quoth  Peg,  with 
an  archness  of  pretended  approval. 

Here,  surely,  should  be  the  old,  true  Peg. 
It  was  a  delight  to  listen  to  the  bantering  yet 
soft  tones  of  her,  like  walking  in  the  May 
woods  with  their  new  green  and  the  new  blos- 
soms painting  the  ground  about  one's  feet. 

"  What  have  I  seen,  then  ?"  I  asked,  going 
back  a  pace. 

"What  have  you  seen?  A  mirage,  the 
mere  mirage  of  Peg —  her  picture,  sketched  on 
the  skies  of  your  ideal."  Then  in  a  playful 
manner  of  correction,  as  when  a  girl  refuses  a 
compliment:  "  You  have  looked  upward,  watch- 
300 


THE    MAJOR    AND   PEG    AT    CROSES'S 

dog,  when  you  should  have  looked  down.  And 
now  for  your  first  lesson.  This  Is  the  text  of 
it :  Would  you  find  a  woman,  keep  your  eyes 
on  the  ground." 

For  all  Peg's  humor  of  gaiety,  I  could  tell 
how  she  was  under  greatest  strain.  Also,  there 
ran  an  odd  current  of  reproach  throughout 
her  words.  It  was  as  though  she  saw  faults 
in  me. 

•  "And  now,"  said  I,  seeking  to  focus  com- 
plaint, "  and  now,  what  have  I  done  or  said  to 
hurt?" 

Peg  drew  away  from  my  shoulder.  I 
could  not  see  her  face,  but  I  felt  her  spirit 
changing  from  cool  to  hot  in  the  furnace  of  some 
thought.  There  was  silence  for  a  moment. 

"  What  have  you  done  to  hurt  ?"  cried  Peg, 
suddenly,  breaking  into  a  wondrous  wrath. 
"  Oh,  I  could  die  with  such  a  dullard  !  What 
have  you  done?  What  is  this  just-now  com- 
plaint you  conceive  against  my  husband  ?  He 
does  not  understand  me,  forsooth !  You 
should  consider  yourself !  What  have  you 
done  to  hurt?  You  place  me  too  high!  You 
put  me  out  of  reach  !  Oh,  I  know  of  no  more 
dreadful  fate  than  to  be  forever  mistaken  for 
an  angel!"  That  last  came  like  the  cry  of  a 
heart  in  torture.  The  next  moment  Peg  was 
gone  and  I  left  gasping. 
301 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

Of  what  avail  to  think?  As  she  had  said,  I 
was  a  blundering  blind-wit,  and,  by  me  at  least, 
Peg  would  not  be  made  out.  I  had  declared 
how  Eaton  owned  a  footless  fancy  which  could 
not  raise  itself  to  realize  a  goddess.  And  now, 
in  my  own  high  superiority,  I  had  come  bravely 
off  !  I  had  been  properly  paid  as  one  who  is 
churl  enough  to  give  a  woman  a  compliment  at 
the  expense  of  her  husband.  Was  I  to  sup- 
pose my  goddess  would  accept  flattery  at  the 
cost  of  her  self-respect?  The  goddess  from 
her  furious  pedestal  had  denounced  me  as  one 
who  planned  for  her  dishonor. 

Congress  was  now  come  down  upon  us 
like  a  high  wind.  The  town  began  to  rub  its 
eyes  free  of  those  cobwebs  of  vacation  slum- 
bers ;  the  taverns  took  on  a  buzzing  life,  while 
the  streets,  lately  so  still  and  lonesome,  showed 
thickly  sown  of  folk  going  here  and  there,  for 
this  reason  of  legislation  or  that  hunger  of 
office,  and  with  faces  gay  or  sombre  as  success 
was  given  or  denied. 

Noah  was  one  to  be  denied.  He  had 
come  to  town  somewhat  in  advance  of  Con- 
gress. The  General  brought  him  quickly  to 
the  White  House  and  made  him  unpack  his 
budget  of  gossip.  How  was  Burr?  How  was 
Swartout  ?  How  fared  Hoyt  ?  Thus  ran  off 
the  General's  curiosity. 
302 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

"All  well,  all  prosperous,"  responded 
Noah,  "  and  the  town  itself  growing  up  to 
weeds  of  riches.  The  New  York  cry  is, 
Money!  They  revise  your  friend  Crockett, 
and,  for  an  aphorism,  say,  '  Be  sure  you're 
rich,  then  go  ahead." 

The  General  would  have  it  that  Noah 
must  take  an  office — a  collectorship  or  some 
such  gear. 

"The  Senate  would  defeat  my  confirma- 
tion," said  Noah;  "first  for  that  I'm  a  Jew; 
and  next  because  of  Catron." 

"And  even  so, "returned  the  General;  "it 
is  still  worth  while  to  discover  who  would  do 
that." 

Noah  was  right,  and  his  name  came  up  to 
be  refused  by  one  vote.  Calhoun  from  his 
place  as  president  of  the  Senate  proved  as  flint 
against  Noah,  while  his  mouthpiece,  Hayne, 
led  the  war  on  the  floor.  I  have  yet  to  look 
on  more  anger  than  was  the  General's  when 
the  news  arrived. 

"  Heed  it  not,"  said  Noah,  snapping  his 
fingers.  "  I  have  still  my  laughter,  my  news- 
paper, and  my  Spanish  swords." 

"  But  the  insult  of  it  I"  cried  the  General. 

"  To  the  cynic,"  said  Noah,  lightly,  "  there 
can  come  no  insult.  Your  philosopher  who 
laughs  is  safe  against  such  whimsies.  I  shall 

303 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

long  remain  both  fat  of  pride  and  fat  of  purse 
for  all  a  Senate  may  do.  You  do  not  know 
me ;  I  should  have  been  a  Diogenes  and  in- 
sulted Alexanders  from  my  tub." 

Calhoun  and  his  coterie  brought  with 
them  to  town  their  great  question  of  Nullifica- 
tion. They  worked  on  it  incessantly  and  made 
a  deal  of  hubbub.  Calhoun  set  forward  his 
man,  Hayne,  to  the  exposition  of  this  policy  of 
national  disintegration.  Hayne  was  met  in 
that  debate  and  overthrown  by  the  mighty 
Webster.  The  country  echoed  with  the  strife 
of  these  Titans. 

For  himself,  the  General  followed  the  ar- 
gument, North  against  South,  word  by  word 
and  step  by  step.  He  had  the  debate  of  each 
day  written  off,  and  Peg  would  come  over  and 
read  it  to  him  while  he  smoked  and  pondered 
and  resolved. 

About  this  time  I  must  write  down  how  I 
was  made  to  feel  rebuked  and  neglected.  Fol- 
lowing that  unguided  reference  to  her  hus- 
band, Peg  would  seem  to  have  deserted  me. 
My  eyes  had  little  of  her,  and  I  heard  her 
voice  still  less ;  for  while  she  was  often  in  to 
gossip  with  the  General,  or  read  those  Senate 
speeches  to  him,  she  gave  me  only  stray,  cold 
glances  and  monosyllables.  She  came  no  more 
to  my  workshop ;  and  day  after  day  I  sat  alone 
304 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT   CROSSES 

while  melancholy  crept  upon  me  like  mosses 
over  stone.  I  was  not  so  dense  but  I  could  tell 
how  I  had  offended.  Peg  was  proud ;  she  re- 
sented my  suggestion  that  Eaton  lacked  appre- 
ciation ;  that  was  why  she  flew  upon  me,  beak 
and  talon,  and  said  it  was  I  who  lived  in  dark- 
ness of  her.  I  had  been  the  wiser  had  I  for- 
gotten those  tears  of  hers  so  soon  as  they  were 
dry,  and  withstood  myself  from  meddling 
opinions  concerning  her  lot  in  life.  Peg's 
coldness  was  the  proper  retort  for  my  im- 
pertinence, and  I  must  bear  it  even  while  it 
broke  my  heart. 

It  would  be  the  expected  thing  that  I 
should  turn  cheerless  and  be  cast  down  when 
now  Peg  left  me  with  my  thoughts  alone.  I 
had  grown  so  used  to  her  about  me,  and  to 
hear  the  sweet  laugh  of  her,  that  it  was  to  miss 
something  out  of  my  life  when  she  took  herself 
away.  And  yet  it  would  be  egotism.  Folk 
miss  and  for  a  while  deplore  what  has  become 
a  piece  of  their  days — even  chains  and  dun- 
geons, so  I've  heard.  Nor  is  this  due  to  any 
love  save  self-love.  I  have  often  considered,  as 
folk  shed  tears  on  a  grave,  how  they  wept  for 
themselves  and  not  for  him  who  slept  at  their 
feet.  It  was  the  merest  selfishness  of  habit, 
this  dejection  because  Peg  would  desert  me. 
Her  absence  would  become  custom  in 
305 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

and    then,    should    she     return,    that     coming 
doubtless  would  irk  me  just  as  much. 

For  all  my  wisdom,  however,  when  now 
my  starved  eyes  came  only  by  stray,  sparse 
glimpses  of  Peg,  as  I  beheld  her  now  and 
again  across  in  the  President's  Square,  or  when 
she  went  by  my  door  on  her  visits  to  the  Gen- 
eral, my  spirit  fell  to  be  jaded  and  vastly 
lowered. 

Had  I  known  my  way  to  go  about  it,  I 
would  have  sought  Peg  out  and  talked  with 
her  freely  and  in  full  of  what  had  fallen  to  be 
our  differences.  I  would  have  acknowledged 
my  error.  But"  I  saw  no  open  gate  through 
which  to  come  by  such  converse,  and  I  feared 
with  an  attempt  to  plunge  bad  into  worse. 

Once,  indeed,  my  resolve  was  half  hatched 
to  gain  some  plain  speech  of  her.  I  lay  in  wait 
until,  the  day  being  fine,  I  had  sight  of  her  on 
a  rustic  seat  over  across  in  the  square.  She 
was  wrapped  in  a  fur  of  some  sort — martin,  I 
think — and,  with  this  drawn  high  about  the 
throat,  it  so  framed  her  face  as  to  make  her 
beautiful  to  the  verge  of  witchcraft. 

Seeing  how  she  was  near  a  path,  I  lounged 
out  of  door,  and  crossing  the  road,  would  make 
as  though  to  walk  by  her,  casually,  and  for  ex- 
ercise and  air.  It  was  my  plan  to  greet  Peg, 
and  next  drift  into  word  with  her  as  in  the  olr1 
306 


HENRY      o       HUTT  -3 


She  arose,  careless  and  contained 

as  though 

she  had  not  observed  me. 


THE    MAJOR   AND   PEG    AT   CROSSES 

time.  The  old  time !  It  was  not  days  away, 
and  yet  it  seemed  as  distant  as  my  cradle  !  I 
would  drift  into  speech  of  her,  I  say,  and  trust 
to  fortune  and  my  wit  to  bring  down  the  ex- 
planation I  believed  might  solve  a  reconcilia- 
tion for  us.  It  was  a  stratagem  sagacious 
enough,  but  Peg  granted  me  no  chance  of  its 
test. 

Before  I  could  get  to  Peg,  indeed,  before 
I  journeyed  half  the  distance,  she  arose,  care- 
less and  contained,  as  though  she  had  not  ob- 
served me — albeit  I  am  sure  she  had — and 
would  be  moving  for  her  own  gate.  At  this 
I  half  halted  ;  and  Peg,  striking  out  into  a  rapid 
walk,  was  in  a  moment  the  other  side  of  her 
door.  A  little  later  I  saw  her  standing  by  a 
window. 

With  Peg's  flight  I  was  abashed  ;  it  was  so 
sure  she  wished  to  dodge  me.  Then  a  kind  of 
anger  took  me  in  hand  and  I  started  towards 
her  house.  I  do  not  know  what  was  my  pre- 
cise thought  in  this,  or  whether  I  would  have 
gone  forward  to  lift  the  great  knocker  on  the 
panel.  As  it  fell  forth,  however,  Peg,  on  see- 
ing me  coming,  whipped  away  from  the  win- 
dow ;  with  that  my  heart  would  turn  all  to 
water  and  I  faced  sadly  about. 

Being  abroad  in  the  streets,  I  now  went 
on  to  walk,  and  to  clear  my  bosom  of  that  un- 
307 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

happiness  which  lay  so  heavy  on  it.  I  walked 
on  and  on,  with  no  clear  purpose  until  the  thing 
to  strike  my  notice  was  how  here  before  me 
sprawled  that  vine  which,  on  a  summer  day, 
Peg  characterized  for  its  wanderings  and  said 
it  was  like  her. 

Why  I  should  go  seeking  this  vine  is  by 
no  means  plain ;  and  yet  I  must  have  owned  to 
some  hope  of  its  succor,  since  I  stood  long  to 
consider  it,  and  cast  about  with  my  eyes  if,  by 
any  luck  of  nature,  a  stout  true  tree  stood 
at  hand  which  might  be  given  it  for  support. 
There  was  none ;  the  poor  vine  must  live  and 
die  unwedded  on  the  loveless  ground. 

Somehow  it  magnified  my  sorrow  when  I 
could  learn  no  way  to  help  Peg's  vine.  But  so 
it  abode  ;  there  it  should  lie  until  the  end.  And 
the  vine  would  seem  to  realize  this,  too  ;  for  it 
looked  desolate,  with  leaves  frost-seared  and 
discolored  like  perished  hopes. 

It  can  not  be  said  that  I  was  uplifted  of  my 
walk,  and  I  returned  home,  if  the  fact  must  out, 
more  unhappy  than  on  any  day  since  I  last 
looked  on  the  Cumberland.  It  is  curious,  also, 
that  this  woe  of  Peg's  coldness  towards  me 
should  precipitate  itself  in  wrath  upon  the  Gen- 
eral. But  thus  it  did  ;  for  that  innocent  soldier 
had  but  to  breathe  Peg's  name  as  we  sat  with 
our  pipes  that  night,  and  all  in  a  setting  of  con- 
308 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

versation  most  commonplace,  when  I  was  upon 
him  like  a  panther,  snarling  demands  and  claw- 
ing for  replies,  as  to  how  much  more  time  he 
expected  me  to  steal  from  my  plantations  to 
waste  upon  him  and  his  affairs. 

To  give  credit  where  credit  is  due,  the 
General  kept  himself  quite  steady  under  this 
unexpected  fire,  and  refilled  his  pipe  in  confi- 
dent, unshaken  peace. 

"  My  explosive  friend,"  said  the  General, 
"  I  need  make  no  better  answer  than  just  to 
turn  your  question  on  yourself.  You  know 
full  well  you  would  no  more  leave  me  than  I 
would  leave  you.  Those  growls  you  give  us 
arise  from  a  dyspepsia  of  the  imagination. 
You'll  be  as  right  as  gold  after  a  night's 
sleep." 

It  was  upon  me  a  bit  later,  as  I  sat  trying 
to  do  some  letters,  that  one  secret  of  my  gloom 
reposed  in  Peg's  great  chair,  spreading  its 
empty  arms  to  my  eyes  each  time  I  raised  them 
from  the  page.  It  was  that  mocking  empty 
chair  to  stare  my  heart  out  of  countenance  and 
give  accent  to  its  dreary  emptiness. 

On  the  impulse,  I  swooped  as  on  an  enemy 
and  bore  it  to  another  room.  Then  I  felt  bet- 
ter ;  and  indeed  it  was  a  relief  not  to  be  longer 
taunted  of  that  chair,  which  would  exult  in  be- 
309 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

ing  vacant  and  find  a  triumph  by  flinging  at 
me  the  absence  of  my  Peg. 

Now  the  General,  while  commonly  as  frank 
for  talk  as  a  cataract,  could  be,  when  he  pre- 
ferred, as  inscrutable  as  the  tomb.  It  pleased 
him  to  lock  up  his  tongue  over  Nullification ; 
and  while  I  understood  his  pose,  and  both  Peg 
and  Noah  had  heard  him  tell  his  thought  on 
that  pregnant  topic  of  state,  together  with 
his  feeling  for  Calhoun,  folk  for  a  widest 
part  remained  much  in  the  dark.  And  it  was 
often  put  and  never  answered,  this  query  of 
what  the  General's  course  would  be  when  the 
last  grapple  came  to  hand.  The  agitators  for 
Secession  were  no  folk  to  put  to  sea  wanting 
chart,  however  crude,  to  display  the  shores  and 
waters  about  them.  They  resolved  to  arrive 
by  some  knowledge  of  the  General's  temper 
on  this  dogma  of  danger  so  near  the  Calhoun 
heart. 

In  quest  of  such  news,  a  spy,  or  perhaps 
he  should  be  called  a  scout — the  title  is  the 
more  honorable — was  dispatched  to  find  and 
mark  the  General's  position.  The  General 
and  I  were  given  a  foreword  by  Noah  of  our 
gentleman  who  would  be  thus  upon  a  recon- 
noiter.  He  came  in  sight  one  day,  and  fell 
upon  our  flank  in  this  fashion. 

It  was  an  afternoon,  crisp  and  clear;  al- 
3io 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

together  a  day  proper  for  middle  autumn 
rather  than  the  winter  of  any  honest  year.  I 
had  been  out  with  Noah  and  was  about  my 
return.  As  I  came  up  the  walk,  the  General's 
ramrod  form — tall  hat,  dark  garb,  swinging 
his  tasseled  walking-stick — emerged  from  the 
mansion's  front  door. 

"  Turn  with  me  for  a  short  jaunt,"  said 
he.  "  But  first  step  down  to  the  stables.  I 
must  have  a  look  to  my  horses.  That  clumsy 
rascal,  Charlie,  let  them  run  away,  and  aside 
from  a  strain  to  the  horses  and  a  hand's 
breadth  of  hide  knocked  off  the  nigh  one's 
shoulder,  he  broke  the  wheel  of  the  coach — my 
wife's  coach,  Major;  I  wouldn't  have  had  it 
injured  for  a  world  of  coaches." 

This  coach  was  one  of  the  General's  treas- 
ures. Well  I  recall  how  it  was  first  brought  up 
the  Cumberland  years  before  and  rolled  ashore 
at  Nashville. 

"  But  it's  for  her,"  observed  the  General, 
as  I  suggested  the  slimness  of  his  purse  in 
contrast  with  the  cost  of  the  vehicle;  "it's  for 
her.  She  shall  have  a  proper  carriage  to  ride 
in." 

"  I   am  more  concerned   for  the   coach," 

remarked   the   General,  as  we  went   about  the 

western    corner   of   the   mansion  on   our  way 

towards  the  stables,  "  then  for  the  horses.     If 

311 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

she  were  here  now,  her  whole  tender  thought 
would  be  of  the  latter." 

The  injuries  to  the  carriage  were  not 
grievous,  and  a  look  of  pleased  relief  filled  the 
General's  eyes.  The  horses,  too,  had  come 
well  through  their  unauthorized  dash  along  the 
road,  and  a  hostler,  skillful  of  horse-drugs, 
gave  his  word  to  cure  them  of  every  ill  received 
with  a  quart  of  wormwood  and  vinegar,  and  a 
spoonful  of  tar  for  the  cuts. 

"Beauties,  eh?"  said  the  General,  as  he 
admired  the  sleek  gray-dappled  coats  with 
hand  and  eye.  "  Beauties,  they  are  indeed ! 
And  descended  in  direct  line  from  my  great 
horse  Truxton.  You  remember  Truxton; 
that  never-beaten  King  of  the  Clover  Bottom 
Course?" 

Truxton  would  be  recalled  easily  enough. 
The  more,  since  it  was  that  fleet  champion's 
match  with  the  renowned  Ploughboy  which 
in  part  opened  way  to  the  savage  duel  with 
Dickenson. 

Made  sure  of  the  safety  of  his  carriage, 
the  General  and  I  turned  westward  for  a 
stroll.  When  we  were  gone  no  desperate  dis- 
tance, I  was  all  of  a  sudden  shouted  after  in 
high-pitched  tones,  though  amiable.  We  faced 
about  to  settle  the  riddle  of  the  interruption. 
The  calls  were  from  one  .Rhetz,  a  member  of 
312 


THE    MAJOR    AND     PEG    AT    CROSSES 

the  Calhoun  inner  circle.  Being  of  a  friendly 
diplomacy,  this  Rhetz  had  maintained  good 
relations  with  the  General  and  myself. 

"  Ah !  here  we  have  our  friend  Rhetz," 
exclaimed  the  General.  Rhetz  was  yet  some 
distance.  While  we  waited  the  General  made 
his  comment.  "  He  is  the  one  who  should 
come  from  Calhoun ;  my  silence  on  Nullifica- 
tion, as  Noah  warned  us,  has  made  the  Vice- 
President  nervous,  and  he  would  feel  me  out. 
I  think,  Major,  and  by  your  leave,  I  shall  clear 
the  business  up  for  them.  Come,  now,  what 
say  you  ?  Let  us  run  up  our  Union  flag  like 
gallant,  hearty  fellows,  you  and  me,  and  call  on 
the  fray.  I  think,  too,  I'll  give  them  my  views 
on  Calhoun." 

"  Would  it  be  wise  to  declare  open  war  on 
Calhoun?" 

"  He  has  for  long  waged  secret  war  on 
me,"  retorted  the  General.  "  No ;  let  us  un- 
mask ourselves  and  thereby  unmask  him.  It 
will  cripple  him  and  strengthen  us,  since  the 
sole  chance  he  has  to  harm  me  is  to  pretend 
to  be  my  friend.  Moreover,  a  fierce  openness 
now  should  serve  somewhat  to  hamstring  the 
enemy's  campaign  against  Peg." 

"  I  was  about  to  call  on  you,"  said  Rhetz, 
greetings  over  "  and  was  told  at  the  door 
313 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

how  you  were  somewhere  for  a  stroll  about  the 
grounds." 

"What  was  your  concern  with  me?"  asked 
the  General,  his  manner  most  urbane. 

"  No  concern  at  all,"  responded  the  affable 
Rhetz,  "  no  concern  beyond  a  friendly  regard, 
Mr.  President.  I  would  call  only  to  exhibit 
my  friendship." 

"And  that  should  give  me  great  pleasure," 
said  the  General,  casting  a  comic  side-look  to- 
wards me.  Then,  with  a  plain  purpose  of 
helping  the  scout  to  his  discoveries:  "And 
what  of  Congress?  I  suppose  both  House 
and  Senate  still  heave  with  the  ground-swells  of 
the  Webster-Hayne  debate." 

"There  is  no  end  of  cloakroom  talk," 
said  Rhetz.  "  And,  by  the  way,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent,"— here  was  a  feeler — "  there  be  folk,  and 
your  friends  at  that,  who  wonder  you  are  not 
openly  with  Calhoun  and  against  Webster  and 
his  Yankees  for  this  principle  of  States  Rights." 
Rhetz  followed  this  last  observe  with  a  setting 
forth  of  argument  bearing  for  the  Calhoun- 
Hayne  contention. 

"  Beware  of  metaphysics,"  observed  the 
General  dryly,  turning  his  gray  look  against 
Rhetz,  as  that  rice-land  sophist  laid  down  one 
by  one  those  various  refinements  and  abstrac- 
tions wherewith  the  Palmetto  gentry — the  Cal- 
3H 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

houns  and  the  Butlers  and  the  Pinckneys  and 
the  Haynes — were  blazing  the  path  for  Seces- 
sion ;  "  beware  of  metaphysics !  No  good 
comes  of  splitting  hairs.  A  rough-hewn  hon- 
esty— a  turgid  frankness — should  be  the  better 
road."  The  General  walked  on  in  silence  fora 
brief  space,  Rhetz  also  silent,  feeling  himself 
on  the  brink  of  some  precipice  of  the  General's 
temper,  and  in  no  sort  eager  for  a  fall.  u  Sir," 
resumed  the  General,  "  let  me  now  set  you  an 
example  ;  let  me  be  most  open  with  you,  not  only 
for  Nullification,  but  for  your  friend,  Calhoun. 
First,  then,  Calhoun  is  not  trustworthy.  Did  he 
not  for  years  teach  me  to  believe  he  was  my 
friend  with  Monroe,  when  it  was  he  of  all  that 
cabinet  who  urged  my  court-martial  for  taking 
Florida  and  hanging  Ambristie  and  Arbuth- 
not?  Calhoun  was  my  enemy,  sir;  he  is  my 
enemy  now.  He  would  hide  the  fact,  but  it  is 
too  late.  When  I  tell  you  how  Calhoun  is  my 
enemy,  would  you  still  urge  on  me  this  prince 
of  duplicity  for  a  statesman  whose  word  is 
worth  a  following?  Calhoun,  for  a  plan  or  a 
principle,  can  not  be  relied  on.  He  is  congeni- 
tally  bad,  and  will  propose  nothing  that  is  true 
or  high."  Here,  as  the  General's  anger  began 
to  tower,  he  would  strike  viciously  at  old  weeds, 
dead  and  winter-bitten,  which  ranked  the  path 
we  traversed,  cutting  them  down  with  his  hick- 
s' 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

ory  stick  as  with  a  saber;  Rhetz  still  silent, 
without  voice.  "  There  lives  but  one  more 
trustless  than  Calhoun — that  arch-rogue  Clay. 
And  my  friends  would  show  amazement  at  my 
failure  to  be  openly  with  Calhoun!  Also,  you 
say  they  fear  I  may  follow  Webster  and  his 
Yankees.  Sir,  I  know  the  Yankees ;  they  are 
a  dour,  hard  brood,  who  to  aid  their  interests 
might  not  scruple  to  over-reach.  I  have  yet 
to  hear,  however,  they  betray  their  friends,  as 
did  Calhoun;  I  have  still  to  know  they  would 
bargain  the  downfall  of  their  party,  as  did  Clay. 
Judas  would  have  done  a  no  more  ebon  deed 
than  did  that  Kentucky  renegade  when  he 
sold  his  soul  to  Adams  for  a  place.  And  now 
am  I  to  take  a  great  doctrine  from  such  chil- 
dren of  deceit  ?  Webster  and  his  Yankees 
may  be  centered  on  themselves  and  selfish; 
doubtless  they  are.  But  you  may  tell  Calhoun 
that  I  prefer  them  as  companions  of  policy  be- 
fore such  cozeners  as  himself  and  Clay."  The 
General's  voice  here  rose  like  the  far  high 
scream  of  an  osprey. 

"  Calm  yourself,  General,"  I  said,  in  tones 
which  never  failed  to  bring  him  to  himself. 
"There  is  scant  need  of  informing  all  Wash- 
ington City  of  our  opinions." 

The  General  had  paused  in  his  walk  and 
taken  off  that  high  white  hat,  deep  girdled  of 
316 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

a  mourning-band.  As  he  talked  he  beat  this 
stiff  headgear  with  his  cane  until  I  quite  trem- 
bled for  its  integrity. 

"  Calhoun,"  went  on  the  General,  but  with 
temper  more  in  hand,  "  claims  for  his  state  the 
right  to  annul  the  law — the  right  to  secede 
from  the  Union.  Sir,  if  we  were  to  walk  by 
this  doctrine  of  Nullification,  the  Union  would 
be  like  a  bag  open  at  both  ends.  No  matter 
where  or  how  you  picked  it  up  the  meal  would 
all  run  out.  Tell  Calhoun  that  I  shall  tie  the 
bag  and  save  the  country." 

The  General's  lean  jaws  at  this  last  mention 
of  Calhoun  closed  hard  and  iron-fast  like  a  trap, 
while  his  nose  seemed  more  beaky  and  preda- 
tory. Evidently  he  half  scented  Calhoun  as  a 
prey  to  come,  and  would  be  ready  to  swoop 
on  him. 

"You  would  seem  deeply  to  hate  both  Clay 
and  Calhoun,  Mr.  President,"  Rhetz  suggested. 
Rhetz  was  somewhat  feeble  of  voice  ;  the  Gen- 
eral's outburst  had  taken  his  breath. 

"And  it  is  they  rather  than  their  doctrines 
I  loathe,"  said  the  General.  "  They  creep  and 
crawl  and  sprawl  in  ambush,  and  strike  at  mid- 
night. They  pretend  friendship  while  plotting 
one's  destruction.  I  was  born  to  make  war 
upon  their  tribe — war  to  the  death." 

Rhetz  made  no  protracted  stay  in  such 
317 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

warm  company.  We  did  not  hinder  his  escape, 
and  presently  had  the  advantage  of  his  back. 

"I  should  like  to  see  the  Calhoun  face," 
said  I,  "when  Rhetz  lays  out  his  discoveries." 

"You  observe  how  they  try  me,"  cried  the 
General,  passionately,  gazing  after  the  disap- 
pearing Rhetz.  "You  will  witness  it!  But 
by  the  heavens  above  us!  I'll  uphold  the  law!" 

"And  now,"  continued  the  General,  when 
Rhetz  was  quite  gone  away,  "  having  been  so 
vigorously  free  with  the  envoy,  I  must  at  once 
write  Calhoun  a  letter  and  say  it  all  over 
again.  I  would  have  talked  this  to  Calhoun 
first  of  all,  were  I  accurately  the  gentleman  of 
honor ;  but  then  he  should  not  have  stirred 
me  with  his  spy." 

The  General's  letter  declaratory  of  the 
duplicity  of  Calhoun  was  written  and  went  to 
the  Vice-President  the  next  day.  It  repeated 
his  words  to  Rhetz  so  far  as  they  were  personal 
to  Calhoun,  and  made  a  deal  of  commotion,  I 
warrant  you.  The  missive  exploded  in  the 
very  heart  of  Secession  like  a  hand-grenade. 

The  General  and  I  had  turned  now;  we 
aimed  to  be  home  before  dark,  and  your  mid- 
winter day  is  not  the  longest  of  the  year.  The 
sun  was  still  an  hour  over  the  western  trees, 
however,  when  we  found  ourselves  in  the  Presi- 
dent's Square.  Supper  would  only  come  with 
318 


THE    MAJOR    AND   PEG    AT    CROSESS 

sundown,  since  we  still  adhered  to  our  Tennes- 
see customs. 

Having  moments  to  spare,  we  rested  our- 
selves upon  a  bench  which  owned  a  thick  pine 
tree  at  its  back.  I  was  the  more  willing,  for 
we  were  in  close  view  from  Peg's  windows,  and 
I  half  hoped  the  sight  of  the  General  would 
lure  her  out  to  us.  I  was  pining  for  a  look 
into  her  face,  and  to  hear  the  voice  of  her, 
sweet  as  the  full  note  of  a  harp. 

"  Do  you  know,"  remarked  my  companion, 
"  I  never  walk  in  this  square  but  I  think  on 
the  day  when  the  British  burned  the  White 
House.  They  halted  in  this  very  park  and 
told  off  the  squad  of  incendiaries  and  sent  them 
across.  Mrs.  Madison  was  about  to  give  a 
dinner,  and  was  fair  driven  from  the  table  by 
the  bayonets  of  the  English.  I  would  I'd  been 
here,"  he  concluded;  "I'd  have  made  it  for 
those  visitors  another  New  Orleans.  The  lady 
should  have  had  her  dinner  if  I'd  been  here." 

"  The  English  are  good  soldiers,"  I  urged, 
paying  little  heed  to  him,  for  my  eyes  were 
roving  after  some  flutter  of  Peg's  skirts. 

"  They  are  marvellously  puissant,"  he  re- 
torted, "when  they  number  two  for  one  of  the 
enemy."  The  General's  antipathy  for  the  Eng- 
lish was  so  great  he  could  never  do  them 
justice.  "  I  carry  some  record  of  their  gallantry 
319 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

myself,"  he  continued,  as  he  took  off  his  hat 
and  parted  the  bristling  hair  where  the  rough 
welt  of  a  saber-slash  proved  a  refusal  to  blacken 
English  boots  in  the  storm-torn  years  of  the 
Revolution,  when  the  General  was  a  boy  of 
twelve.  "That  fixed  my  opinion  of  the  Eng- 
lish," he  said,  as  he  replaced  his  hat.  "And 
can  you  believe  it,  that  scar  burned  like  fire 
the  day  at  New  Orleans.  Also,  it  has  felt  bet- 
ter ever  since." 

"  Say  what  you  will  of  the  British,"  I  in- 
sisted— I  was  turned  obstinate  now,  seeing  no 
sign  of  Peg — "  they  make  stubborn  soldiers. 
Note  what  they  did  with  Napoleon." 

"  It  was  not  the  English,"  responded  the 
General,  with  heat,  u  who  defeated  Napoleon; 
it  was  Paris.  He  should  have  done  with  Paris 
what  the  Russian  did  with  Moscow — burned 
it,  sir;  burned  it  to  the  ground,  and  thrown  him- 
self for  his  support  upon  the  country.  So  I 
should  have  done,  and  my  country  would  have 
sustained  me." 

The  General  had  been  a  partisan  of  the 
Corsican  a  score  of  years  before;  in  the  energy 
of  his  present  defence,  he  arose  from  the  seat 
and  started  again  for  home.  I  more  slowly  fol- 
lowed, still  hoping  the  possible  appearance  of 

Peg. 

320 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT    CROSSES 

As  the  General  rounded  a  clump  of  bushes 
set  near  the  path,  he  paused  abruptly. 

"What's  this!"  he  exclaimed.  The  look 
of  defiance  for  everything  English,  which  still 
made  hard  his  face,  changed  to  one  of  tender- 
ness and  regard.  "What's  this!"  he  repeated. 

There  lay  a  little  negro  child,  well  coated 
and  warm,  sound  and  fast  asleep  for  all  the 
frost.  The  General  thought  no  more  on  Na- 
poleon, the  English,  the  treachery  of  Paris,  or 
the  disaster  of  Waterloo.  He  stooped  and 
gathered  up  the  sleeping  pickaninny  in  his 
arms. 

"  He  is  Augustus'  little  boy,"  he  said. 
"  He  has  tired  himself  with  play.  Augustus 
should  have  better  watch  of  the  child  such 
weather  as  this.  I'll  put  a  flea  in  his  careless 
ear  to  that  effect." 

Loaded  with  the  small  burden  of  the 
sleeping  boy,  the  General  led  the  way  across 
the  grounds. 

Now  when  I  had  ceased  to  hope  for  her,  a 
light  foot  on  the  sod  told  me  how  Peg  was  at 
hand.  I  verily  believe  the  perverse  witch  to 
have  been  behind  a  tree,  or  hidden  of  a  shrub, 
and  not  a  score  of  yards  from  us  during  our 
whole  halt  in  the  square.  I  would  have  ac- 
costed her,  but  she  brushed  by  with  a  curt 
bending  of  the  head  and  not  a  word,  and  joined 
321 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

the  General  where  that  chieftain  marched  ahead 
with  the  pickaninny.  My  heart  sank,  and  I 
fell  still  farther  to  the  rear,  more  lonely  than 
before  Peg  came. 

It  was  ten  minutes  later,  and  when  Peg, 
leaving  the  General,  was  on  the  turn  of  setting 
forth  for  her  own  house.  I  was  in  my  work- 
shop, idle  at  my  desk,  thoughtful  with  no 
thoughts,  and  my  heart  inexpressibly  sad. 

As  Peg  would  have  crossed  my  door,  her 
glance  swept  the  interior  of  the  room.  With 
that,  she  came  to  a  full  stop.  I  looked  up  with 
an  eagerness  to  hear  her  speak;  and  thinking, 
too,  that  now  she  would  come  in,  and  we  two 
be  the  old  kind  friends  again. 

But  instead  of  kindness,  my  glance  gave 
me  her  face,  cloudy  and  threatening.  Also, 
there  were  lamps  of  danger  lighted  in  her  eyes. 
What  new  crime  had  I  done  ?  It  was  clear  I 
stood  guilty  of  some  baseness ;  I  read  that 
much  in  Peg's  frown,  and  the  last  poor  spark 
of  my  hope  pinched  out.  Never  again,  what- 
ever the  temptation,  would  I  condemn  a  hus- 
band to  his  wife. 

Peg  swept  into  the  room  while  I  gazed  on 

her  without  speaking.     If  for  no  reason  save 

one  of  politeness,  I  should  have  greeted  her ; 

but  my  manners  were  quite  driven  out  of  my 

322 


THE    MAJOR    AND    PEG    AT   CROSSES 

head  with  wondering  what  new  eggs  would  here 
be  toasting  on  the  spit  for  me. 

"Where  is  my  chair?"  cried  Peg,  and  with 
a  voice  as  full  of  wrath  as  a  coal  of  fire.  Then 
pointing  to  where  her  leathern  chair  was  not: 
"Where  is  my  chair,  I  say?" 

Stupidly,  I  looked  over  beyond  my  desk 
where  her  throne  had  been  in  happy  times  ;  but 
I  kept  my  teeth  on  my  tongue,  not  willing  to 
have  the  risk  of  a  word. 

"  I  will  have  it  back!"  Peg  went  on,  eye  as 
vicious  as  a  kestrel's,  "  I  will  have  it  instantly 
back!" 

With  every  headlong  dispatch  I  went  after 
the  chair,  while  Peg  walked  up  and  down  as 
might  that  leopard  who  should  own  those  two 
sharp  teeth,  the  gleam  of  which  just  showed 
beneath  the  upper  redness  of  her  lip  like 
points  of  pearl.  When  the  chair  was  restored, 
I  turned  to  her  and  called  my  courage  to  my 
shoulder. 

"  And  now  will  you  sit  down?"  said  I. 

"I  will  not  sit  there  until  I  choose," 
stormed  Peg,  still  up  and  down.  Her  cheek 
was  flame,  but  with  no  laughing  roguishness  of 
fun ;  her  eyes  shone  like  mirrors,  but  not  from 
any  interest  of  amusement.  As  she  went  to 
and  fro,  leopard-like,  she  would  have  those 
eyes  on  me  with  a  questioning  indignation. 

321 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  So  you  would  thrust  my  chair  out  of  your 
room?"  said  she. 

Then,  as  I  made  no  words  on  it,  Peg  after 
a  space  would  for  the  second  time  be  about 
her  departure,  and  I  confess,  for  all  my  late 
thirst  for  her  presence,  not  a  trifle  to  my  relief. 
A  leopard — even  a  leopard  named  Peg — is  no 
good  company. 

When  Peg  was  by  the  door,  she  swung 
round  on  me.  "  I  will  not  sit  there  until  I 
choose,"  she  cried  again.  "  But  you  shall  not 
touch  my  chair !  I  will  not  have  it  banished  !" 
With  this,  she  went  quite  away,  while  I  stayed 
to  look  on  the  chair  which  had  made  the 
trouble,  and  now  from  its  old  place  would 
leer  victoriously  upon  me,  and  mock  with 
a  more  insulting  emptiness  than  ever,  that 
doubly  vacant  heart  of  mine. 


3*4 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    GENERAL   MAKES   PROVERBS 

In  those  few  days  next  to  follow  Peg's 
tantrum  of  the  chair,  like  those  several  to  pre- 
cede it,  I  was  given  no  more  than  meager  pic- 
tures of  her.  I  should  perhaps  beg  forgiveness 
for  the  name  "  tantrum,"  which  is  a  byword  or 
term  of  slang,  but  search  as  I  may,  I  find  noth- 
ing so  good  wherewith  to  tell  the  story  of  that 
rootless  wrath  of  Peg's.  However,  I  may  say 
I  was  at  care  not  to  shift  the  chair  again,  but 
left  it  to  stand  waiting  for  her  in  accord  with 
her  command. 

Peg,  on  the  next  day  after  that  tantrum, 
and  on  every  day,  would  come  for  her  visit  with 
the  General;  but  each  time  she  so  crept  by  me, 
whether  by  stealth  or  luck,  that  I  lost  notice  of 
her  advent,  and  knew  nothing  of  her  presence 
until  she  went  past  my  door  when  on  her  way 
for  home.  She  would  create  noise  enough  with 
her  flight ;  setting  her  small  feet  down  in  em- 
phasis and  sending  a  rustle  along  the  hallway 
with  the  swirl  of  her  petticoats,  so  that  I  had 
ample  time  to  raise  my  head  and  be  on  guard 
325 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

for  her.  She  would  nod  slightly  as  she  caught 
my  glance,  but  ever  sustained  herself  with  that 
distance  which  she  had  seen  fit  to  construct 
between  us. 

When  Peg  flashed  by  my  door — for,  radi- 
ant as  ever,  and  with  the  motion  of  a  meteor, 
"flashed"  should  be  the  description  of  it — I 
was  bound  to  observe  how  her  look  shot 
straight  for  her  chair  like  an  arrow.  She  would 
be  sure  it  was  there,  that  chair;  and  I  could 
tell  how  its  absence  would  have  become  the  sig- 
nal for  crowning  me  with  so  warm  a  version  of 
her  feelings  that  I  shriveled  like  October  leaves 
to  simply  think  on  it.  But  I  would  meet  no 
risk  of  the  sort,  since  I  did  not  entertain  the 
hardihood  to  invoke  it. 

I  say  the  latter,  because  sooth  it  is,  that 
half  in  anger,  half  in  thought  to  bring  her  in 
for  a  talk,  I  once  had  it  on  my  mind  to  send 
Peg's  chair  again  into  exile.  Indeed,  I  did  put 
it  out  of  the  room.  But  only  for  a  moment  ; 
the  wick  of  my  courage  burned  dim,  and  I  fell 
to  be  in  utmost  haste  to  restore  that  leathern 
furnishment,  breathing  the  while  in  a  quick, 
craven  fashion  of  respiration,  lest  she  surprise 
me  before  the  situation  was  repaired.  Thus  it 
stood ;  the  chair  and  I  in  the  room,  and  both 
desolate,  with  Peg  going  each  day  by  like  a 
326 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

watchman  on  his  rounds,  to  glance  in  and  be 
assured. 

These  conditions  of  separation  between  Peg 
and  myself,  as  days  went  on,  would  give  me  less 
and  less  of  ease.  I  was  forever  carrying  them  on 
the  ridge  of  my  thought,  and  they  made  an  un- 
happy element  in  life's  skyline.  I  stood  the  more 
in  grief,  since  to  be  out  with  little  Peg  was  like  a 
quarrel  with  a  child ;  and  then,  moreover,  the 
fault  of  it  was  mine,  for  I  overstepped  an 
obvious  line  of  right  conduct  when  I  went  forth 
upon  Eaton's  disparagement.  It  was  a  fool's 
work,  besides ;  for  I  might  have  known  she 
would  be  sharp  to  notice  and  as  sharply  bound 
to  resent;  had  she  not  already  warned  me  how  I 
disfavored  Eaton,  and  told  me  I  was  jealous? 
She  would  say,  truly,  she  did  not  care  for  that 
jealousy ;  but  that  was  mere  laughter  when  her 
fancy  was  at  merriest.  Also,  she  had  told  how 
I  did  not  know  her,  and  never  would  see  her 
true  self ;  I  began  now  to  understand  that  she 
was  right.  And  yet  I  would  have  her  back,  and 
our  old  frank  confidence  returned ;  for  Peg,  as 
I  tell  you,  was  only  a  child — a  prankish  girl 
when  all  was  in,  and  it  made  no  more  for  my 
credit  than  for  my  peace  that  we  should  be  at 
crosses. 

It  stands  a  thing  strangest  of  all,  how  dif- 
ferently one  will  regard  another  when  the  time 
327 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

is  this  or  that.  Peg,  as  I  have  written,  would 
seem  ever  to  me  the  rompish  child  ;  for  my 
thoughts  of  her  were  forged  and  beaten  out 
upon  the  stithy  of  those  moments  when,  free 
and  playful  and  without  restraint,  she  sat  alone 
with  me.  By  the  same  token !  I  recall  another 
score  of  moments  where  the  stage  was  a  draw- 
ing room  and  strange  folk  framed  the  scene, 
and  Peg,  a  beautiful  woman  of  dignity  and 
grave  reserve,  would  remind  one  of  no  child  at 
all.  But  then  she  would  not  be  Peg  to  me ;  on 
such  times  when  this  proud,  sufficient  being 
made  me  some  sweeping,  stately  recognition, 
and  as  though  I  had  known  her  but  a  day,  I 
have  stood  aside  to  wonder  was  she  that  play- 
ful leopard  Peg  whose  white  mark  I  wore  on 
my  hand?  \Vasit  she  to  call  me  "slave"  and 
kiss  the  mark,  or  "watch-dog"  and  make  me 
a  collar  with  her  arms  ?  And  still  I  liked  her 
thus.  I  was  proud  to  see  her  proud  ;  and  my 
bosom  would  swell  to  note  how  when  Peg, 
fastidious,  and  with  her  highbred  look,  stepped 
across  a  room,  she  seemed  among  the  women 
gathered  there — and  they  the  Vere  de 
Veres — a  greyhound  among  poodles,  or  rather 
the  leopard  she  was  among  a  troop  of  tabbies. 
These  be  crude  comparisons,  surely ;  yet  there 
comes  no  other  to  so  fit  with  my  thoughts  of 
rearward  days  when  Peg  moved  an  empress  in 
328 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

the  midst  of  peasants,  at  once  the  envy  and 
despair  of  rivalry. 

As  I  tell  you,  for  all  these  exhibitions  of 
commanding  womanhood,  Peg  would  continue 
with  me  but  a  child ;  the  image  of  such  ball- 
room triumps  were  not  to  remain  with  me, 
while  the  real  Peg,  the  true  Peg,  the  dear  Peg 
of  memory  when  alone,  would  ever  be  the 
laughing,  mocking,  hectoring,  teasing  Peg  on 
her  leathern  throne  at  my  desk's  end.  It  is 
the  same  with  men ;  there  come  such  words  as 
play  and  work,  and  danger  and  safety ;  and  the 
man  you  saw  on  the  battle-line,  as  stern  and  as 
brave  as  Caesar,  is  that  boy  by  yonder  camp- 
fire  who  now  laughs  over  some  tale  of  personal 
chicken-pillage  when  he  fled  before  a  mad  old 
dame  armed  of  a  pudding  stick. 

While  Peg  and  I  were  on  these  long-range 
terms,  I  went  more  in  hunt  of  the  General  for 
his  company's  sake  and  for  conversation.  I  do 
not  think  the  General  stood  aware  of  Peg's 
cold  pose  towards  me,  for,  as  I  have  urged,  he 
was  no  one  to  see  such  things ;  besides,  Peg, 
who  showed  herself  no  bad  strategist,  would 
be  about  me  with  the  friendliness  of  those  days 
that  were,  whenever  the  General  sat  by  to  make 
a  third.  Peg  held  the  General  in  a  best  esteem; 
and  then,  too,  she  would  be  mindful  how  lately 
he  was  ill  and  save  for  her  tending  might  have 

329 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

died,  and  be  the  last  to  vex  him  with  thoughts 
of  how  two  so  near  him  and  dear  upon  his 
sentiment  nourished  a  feud  among  themselves. 

While  the  General  missed  the  reason  of 
my  frequent  visits,  he  no  less  relished  our  talks; 
for  a  president,  let  me  inform  you,  is  a  mighty 
idle  man,  for  all  your  sycophants  and  toadies 
of  print  would  depict  him  as  a  galley  slave  who 
breaks  his  heart  against  an  oar  of  duty.  A 
president  has  little  to  do  beyond  fret  and  fume 
while  affairs  go  crosswise  to  his  wishes ;  also, 
the  General  would  have  him  to  be  a  most  tied 
and  helpless  creature,  besides. 

"The  presidency,"  he  would  say,  "when 
one  goes  to  a  last  experiment,  is  but  another 
word  for  paralysis." 

"  And  is  a  president  such  a  thing  with- 
out hands  ?"  I  would  ask,  for  it  was  sure  he 
thirsted  to  lecture. 

"The  office  is  so  much  bigger  than  the 
man,"  he  would  reply,  "  that  it  controls  him, 
as  a  mountain  might  bear  down  the  strongest 
were  you  to  load  his  back  with  one." 

"  Now,  I  had  thought  a  president  to  be  of 
some  consequence,"  I  would  retort,  in  a  manner 
of  vexing  him.  "  At  least  I  have  known  presi- 
dents to  think  so." 

"And  so  thought  I,"  he  would  respond, 
"ten  months  ago  and  before  inauguration. 
•  33° 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

Sir,  a  president  is  but  the  fly  on  the  chariot 
wheel.  Being  vain,  the  insect  might  flattei 
himself  with  a  theory  that  he  is  the  reason  of 
that  dust  and  motion  he  observes.  But  the 
insect's  vanity  would  be  none  the  less  in  error. 
I  say  to  you,  a  presidency  is  a  thing  of  bolts 
and  bars  and  locks  and  fetters.  What  may  a 
president  do?  He  may  say  this  man  shall 
keep  office  and  that  man  shall  not,  and  that 
would  be  as  important  as  if  he  said  this  rat 
shall  go  overboard  and  that  rat  stay  to  roam 
the  ship.  The  vermin  fate  of  these,  for  black 
or  white,  would  neither  affect  a  course  nor  pick 
those  ports  at  which  the  vessel  touched." 

"  But  a  president  may  veto  a  bill,"  I  would 
reply,  "  or  make  it  a  law  with  his  fist.  He  may 
bring  down  a  war." 

"And  yet  he  is  no  free  agent  when  he 
does  any  of  these,"  he  would  return.  "  He  is 
pressed  upon  by  one  force  or  another,  or  may- 
hap a  dozen  at  once,  and  must  go  with  condi- 
tions like  a  man  in  a  landslide.  As  I  say, 
the  office  is  so  much  bigger  than  the  man  that 
it  transacts  the  man,  and  not  the  man  the  office. 
It  is  as  though  one  were  made  president  of  the 
Potomac,  or  of  a  glacier.  Could  he  take  the 
pne  beyond  its  banks  with  a  war  or  stay  the 
other  in  its  progress  with  a  veto  ?  He  might 
run  up  a  flag,  order  a  bugle  blown,  fire  a 
33  * 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

gun ;  but  the  river  or  the  glacier  would  be  the 
last  impressed.  No,  sir ;  were  one  made  chief 
magistrate  of  that  snowstorm  which  now  whit- 
ens the  world  outside,  and  set  to  rule  its  flakes, 
he  would  be  in  as  much  control  as  when  given 
a  White  House  and  told  that  he  is  President." 

Mayhap  it  will  interest  should  I  offer  a  re- 
port of  one  of  our  afternoons.  It  might  go  as 
specimen  of  all,  for  each  was  but  a  strolling 
here  and  there  of  talk.  Our  discourse  would 
be  hit  or  miss,  like  a  rag  carpet,  and  would 
fall  foul  of  whatever  caught  the  eye  or  stubbed 
the  toe  of  fancy  at  the  moment. 

On  this  day,  and  being  weary  with  the 
sight  of  Peg's  empty  chair,  I  went  down  the 
hall  to  the  General's  workroom  and  found  him 
with  his  nose  in  Tristram  Shandy.\ 

"  Do  you  like  your  author?"  said  I. 

"  Why,  sir,"  said  the  General,  laying  aside 
the  book,  "  he  is  so  grown  up  to  sedge  of  phrase 
and  choked  of  word-weeds  as  to  deny  one 
either  the  sight  or  the  taste  of  the  true  stream 
of  his  story." 

"  Walpole,"  I  returned,  "  said  that  reading 
Tristram  was  to  laugh  a  moment  and  yawn  an 
hour." 

"  Then  he  had  the  better  of  me,  since  I 
have  done  nothing  but  yawn."  After  a  pause  : 
"  Peg  gave  me  the  book  ;  it  was  my  loyalty 
332 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

to  the  child  that  sent  me  between  its  pages. 
And  speaking  of  Peg :  Do  you  still  send  her 
the  roses?  I  know  you  do,  for  I  met  your 
Jim  on  his  way  to  her,  buried  in  blossoms  and 
looking  for  all  the  world  like  the  flower  booth 
in  a  village  fair."  Here  the  General  lazily 
reached  for  his  pipe. 

"  And  why  should  she  not  have  the  flow- 
ers?" I  demanded,  warmly. 

"  No  reason  under  the  sky,  sir,"  said  he, 
giving  me  that  old  glance  out  of  the  falcon 
eyes  of  him — to  anger  me,  I  suppose — "none 
under  the  sky  I  Send  our  pretty  Peg  the  roof 
off  the  house  should  she  have  a  mind  for  it." 
Then,  when  now  his  pipe  was  going :  "  Was  it 
not  you  to  recommend  a  round,  squat,  corpu- 
lent being  named  Curtis  to  be  marshal  for 
Tennessee  ?" 

"  I  said  he  was  a  good  man." 

"  One  might  say  as  much  of  a  pan  of  dough. 
The  creature  is  absolutely  without  motion ;  I 
tried  him  mentally  and  physically,  so  to  speak ; 
the  man  is  stagnant." 

"  None  the  less  a  good  man,"  I  contended. 
"  To  do  nothing  is  at  least  to  do  no  harm." 

"  Now,  that  is  as  may  be,"  retorted  the 
General.  u  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  your 
motionless  folk.  They  are  always  the  worst  folk 
of  all.  I  never  have  been  in  any  crush  of  peril 

333 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

or  concern  where  action  was  not  less  hazardous 
than  inaction,  and  to  do  the  wrong  thing  far 
and  away  better  than  to  do  nothing  at  all. 
Now,  this  fellow  Curtis  of  yours  would  not 
even  talk.  He  had  no  more  conversation  than 
a  catfish." 

"  Silence  is  caution,"  said  I,  dogmatically, 
also  reaching  down  a  pipe  from  the  mantel  to 
keep  the  General  in  smoky  countenance  ;  "  si- 
lence is  caution,  and  caution  is  ever  a  good 
thing." 

u  Caution  is  a  braggart,"  returned  the 
General,  argumentatively,  "  to  call  itself  a  vir- 
tue when  it  is  more  often  a  cover  for  cow- 
ardice. Caution  has  lost  more  fights  than 
rashness,  you  may  take  a  soldier's  word  for 
that." 

"  That  is  in  keeping  with  your  other  pro- 
verb, '  Never  overrate  a  foe.'  Those  be  the 
maxims  to  get  folk  killed !" 

"And  why  not,  so  the  folk  be  the  enemy? 
I  have  beaten  twice  my  strength  because  they 
overrated  me." 

11  Still,"  said  I,  stubbornly,  "  the  crime  of 
silence  which  you  charge  upon  this  Curtis  is  no 
mighty  delinquency.  Words,  as  a  rule,  are 
a  weakness ;  and  I  think  Curtis  should  be 
marshal." 

334 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

* 

"  Let  him  be  marshal,  then,  and  end  it," 
returned  the  General ;  "  but  I  may  tell  you,  sir, 
that  words  are  not  a  weakness,  but  a  source  of 
strength."  The  General  was  an  indomitable 
conversationist,  and  would  not  be  criticised. 
"The  man  who  says  the  most,  commonly  knows 
the  most,  and  comes  most  often  to  succeed. 
Silent  folk  win  only  by  accident,  as  he  shall  see 
who  retraces  any  of  their  victories  to  its  birth." 

"And  now  what  nonsense!"  cried  I. 
"What  wise  one  said  '  Silence  is  golden!'?" 

"  Some  wise  one  who  wanted  the  floor  for 
himself,  doubtless,"  puffed  the  General.  "Talk 
is  a  cloak,  and  great  talk  a  great  cloak  to  hide 
one's  movements.  It  is  a  common  fallacy  to 
suppose  that  one  who  talks  much — chatters,  we 
will  even  call  it — tells  ever  the  truth.  Now  my 
experience  goes  for  it  that  a  great  talker  is  mis- 
leading you  nine-tenths  of  the  time  ;  heads  one 
way  while  he  talks  another.  I  cannot  be  sure 
of  the  plans  or  aims  of  a  great  talker.  He 
would  seem  to  point  so  many  ways  at  once. 
Your  tongue-tied  fellow  I  read  easily.  When  I 
once  know  where  he  is,  and  then  remember 
where  he  would  be,  I  will  readily  foresee  for 
you  the  trail  he  means  to  travel." 

"  Calhoun  is  a  silent  man." 

"  And  Calhoun  is  a  defeated  man  ;  his  one 
chance  is  my  death,  which  I  have  no  mind  shall 
335 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

happen.  Calhoun  is  a  silent,  but  not  a  secret 
man.  He  hides  nothing,  and  can  hide  nothing 
by  a  still  tongue.  Who  does  not  know  how  he 
is  for  Nullification  and  must  live  or  die  by  it?" 

"And  you,"  said  I,  "have  decided  it  shall 
be  the  latter." 

"If  Calhoun  had  not  assailed  me,  and, 
more,  if  he  had  not  included  Peg's  destruction 
in  his  plans — as  a  soldier  might  burn  a  beauti- 
ful suburb  for  an  element  of  his  assault  on  a 
city — Calhoun  and  I  would  have  come  by  some 
agreement.  I  like  the  man;  but  you  see  he 
has  no  gift  to  be  popular.  He  makes  war  on 
me,  which  is  the  least  popular  thing  he  could 
do ;  and  then,  to  prick  me  on  for  bitterest  res- 
olution and  a  strife  to  the  death,  he  sets  his 
dogs  to  baying  Peg.  Also,  let  us  not  forget 
how  he  would  drag  down  Van  Buren  because 
he  is  Peg's  friend  and  mine.  Sir,  you  and  I 
will  one  day  make  Van  Buren  president  for 
that." 

"And  you  have  written  Calhoun  that  letter 
to  be  notice  of  your  hate." 

"It  ties  him  hand  and  foot, "said  the  Gen- 
eral. "Were  Calhoun  Samson,  that  letter 
shears  his  locks.  He  will  publish  it,  and  make 
every  friend  I  have  his  enemy." 

"  And  you  are  enough  loved  by  the  people 
336 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

to  make  that  a  most  formidable  condition  for 
Calhoun." 

You  are  to  observe  that  now  when  I  would 
find  the  General  idle  and  with  an  itch  for  talk, 
I  trolled  him  along  as  folk  troll  pickerel.  It 
relieved  him  to  thus  unbuckle ;  more,  it  helped 
him  form  his  plans,  for  so  he  said  himself. 

"  I  am  ten  fold  more  loved  than  Calhoun," 
responded  the  General.  "  Calhoun,  as  I've 
said,  has  no  gift  to  be  popular.  He  talks  to 
folk ;  I  talk  with  them.  Sir,  between  those 
words,  with  and  /o,  dwells  the  whole  art  of 
popularity." 

u  Your  popularity  is  growth  of  your  work 
in  the  field." 

"  My  being  a  soldier,  had  much  to  do 
with  its  beginning.  Man  is  a  fighting  animal 
and  loves  a  fighter.  Particularly  if  he  win. 
Now,  were  I  to  advise  one  to  a  short  cut  for 
public  favor,  I  would  say,  '  Be  a  soldier  and 
win.'" 

"  Especially  '  win,'  "  I  returned. 

"  By  all  means  add  the  'win'  and  empha- 
size it.  That  is  my  rede  :  Be  sure  to  win.  No 
one  is  made  to  explain  a  victory,  no  one  tries  a 
conqueror ;  the  error  of  all  errors  is  the  black 
error  of  defeat." 

"  And  yet  a  good  man  may  lose." 

"  Sir,  the  best  man  may  lose.     But  you  are 

337 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

to  consider :  When  he  loses,  the  public  owes 
him  nothing.  A  farmer  toils  like  a  slave;  a 
drought  kills  his  crops  ;  is  he  paid  for  the  corn 
he  does  not  raise  ?  The  public  owes  the  suc- 
cessful soldier  for  that  profit  it  takes  from  his 
sword ;  and  the  public  pays  its  debts.  I  won 
at  the  Horseshoe,  at  Pensacola,  at  New  Orleans ; 
and  the  public  pays  me  with  a  White  House. 
Had  I  lost  my  battles,  I  would  have  been  cash- 
iered a  score  of  times.  Calhoun  would  have 
succeeded  with  his  scheme  to  court-martial  me 
in  the  Seminole  days,  save  that  I  was  armored 
of  my  victories.  I  would  never  agree  to  less 
than  victory,  and  that  stubbornness  for  triumph 
has  even  defeated  enemies  I  did  not  know  I 
had." 

11  You  have  had  vast  success,"  said  I, 
judgmatically,  "when  one  remembers  the  blind- 
ness of  your  prejudices,  and  how  you  will  help 
this  one  or  hurt  that  one  for  a  no  better  reason 
than  love  or  hate.  There  is  your  defect;  I 
have  often  wished  that  to  your  honesty  and 
ardor  you  added  the  just  fairness  of  Jef- 
ferson." 

"  Jefferson  I"  This  with  a  snort :  "  I  am  a 
fairer — a  more  just  man  than  was  Jefferson ! 
He  was  just  to  his  enemies  and  unjust  to  his 
friends.  Now,  I  am  strong  enough  to  do 
justice  by  a  friend.  It  hurts  no  man  with  me 
338 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

that  he  has  been  the  friend  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son." 

"  But  you  can  not  do  justice  by  a  foe. 
You  are  all  for  a  foe's  destruction." 

"I  am  all  for  a  foe's  defeat.  And  defeat 
of  a  foe  is  justice  to  a  foe.  '  Woe  to  the  van- 
quished!' said  Brennus,  and  the  barbarian  was 
right.  Being  in  the  field,  your  business  is  to 
conquer." 

"  You  talk  like  a  philosopher,"  said  I, 
"but  you  never  feel  like  one.  Here:  I  will 
show  you  your  prejudice  in  the  face !  Give  me 
now  your  estimate  of  Clay — of  Webster — of 
Hayne — of  Calhoun — of  Randolph!" 

"  You  think  my  portraits  will  be  red  and 
black  and  flame-color."  The  General  spoke 
cunningly.  I  saw  how  he  had  gone  sentry  over 
his  feeling,  and  now  I  looked  for  a  mild  story  of 
those  whom  I  had  named.  "  Webster,  mentally, 
is  strong,"  said  he,  "  and  willing,  like  a  horse. 
But,  like  a  horse,  he  can  not  harness  himself  to  a 
load.  There  should  be  those  about  to  hook  the 
traces  and  in  a  measure  guide  himfor  his  haulings. 
Compared  with  Hayne,  whose  mentality  is  slim 
and  graceful  as  is  an  elm,  Webster  is  the  oak. 
He  is  bigger  and  stronger  without  being  so 
beautiful.  Besides,  Hayne  is  indolent,  and  would 
sooner  drift  all  day  than  pull  an  oar  an  hour. 
That  is  the  reason  why  Calhoun,  who  has  cur- 

339 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

rents,  sweeps  Hayne  along  for  Nullification. 
Calhoun  is  simply  a  good  man  gone  wrong; 
and,  for  that  he  was  bred  narrowly  and  as  an 
aristocrat,  he  loses  time  over  his  dignity. 
Also,  he  does  not  keep  in  touch  with  the 
detail  of  his  destinies,  but  leaves  too  much 
to  underlings.  Thus  he  is  put  into  the  posi- 
tion of  him  who  attacks  a  woman — an  act 
without  defence,  and  one  most  perilous;  and, 
being  in,  Calhoun  lacks  that  force  needed 
for  his  extrication.  Randolph  is  built  like  a 
spear,  with  his  anger  the  head  and  his  intelli 
gence  to  be  the  shaft  of  it.  He  has  no  mor- 
ality of  thought,  and  his  one  virtue  is  his 
contempt  for  Clay.  Randolph  was  born  to  be 
beaten,  since  he  was  born  to  make  a  science  of 
hatred  and  become  a  specialist  of  reprisal. 
Clay  is  altogether  another  story.  The  man  is 
mean  beyond  expression.  He  would  be  peril- 
ous, but  he  wants  in  courage.  He  has  appetites 
but  no  principles ;  he  can  attain  to  a  conclu- 
sion but  not  to  a  conviction.  He  owns  no 
depth  of  mind  ;  he  is  brilliant  in  a  sheeny, 
shimmery  way,  and,  being  of  no  integrity,  is  no 
more  to  be  laid  hold  on,  mind  you !  and  held 
to  anything,  than  so  much  water." 

"  And  would  you  say,"  cried  I,  "  that  Clay 
has  no  convictions  ?" 

"No  more  than  has  a  mirror!     Sir,  the 
340 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

man  will  acquiesce,  and  show  you  whatever  is 
set  before  him  like  a  looking-glass.  There  is 
his  conviction  for  you  !  It  is  each  time  some 
other  man's  conviction  and  wholly  outside  of 
Clay.  Remove  it  from  before  him  ;  look  then 
into  your  burnished  statesman,  and  where  is  his 
conviction?  Why,  sir,  when  Clay  sold  himself 
to  Adams,  did  it  not  prove  what  I  say?" 

The  General  reeled  off  these  views  with, 
for  him,  a  mighty  conservatism  that  was  a  sur- 
prise to  me ;  for  knowing  his  headlong,  not  to 
say  trenchant,  sort,  I  looked  to  have  him  go 
about  his  carvings  of  the  portaits  of  ones  inim- 
ical to  him  with  a  knife.  He  would  have  obliged 
me,  too ;  but  he  observed  my  thought,  and 
turned  cautious  to  disappoint  me.  I  must  con- 
cede, he  weighed  up  these  gentry  fairly  well 
— he  squarely  hit  them  off  or  I'm  the  more  mis- 
taken. He  was  too  lenient  with  Calhoun  ;  Cal- 
houn  might  have  called  off  those  slanders  against 
Peg  which  found  voice  for  his  advancement; 
when  he  failed  of  that  he  became  their  sponsor. 

When  I  went  again  to  my  own  lair  of  labor, 
I  found  Noah  waiting.  I  had  grown  to  delight 
in  our  cool  gentleman  of  the  red  hair,  the  jet 
eyes,  and  the  sharp  Spanish  swords. 

"And  now,"  said  I,  and  greeting  my  visitor, 
14  how  runs  the  world  away?" 
34* 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

11  There  are  things  talked  about  our  tav- 
erns," said  Noah,  "and  the  corridors  of  Con- 
gress, whereof  it  might  be  proper  the  President 
should  hear.  The  more,  since  the  conversations 
have  him  for  their  motive." 

"  Let  us  journey  down  the  hall  and  tell 
him,"  said  I. 

"  No,"  returned  Noah;  "  you  may  enlighten 
him  later,  since  there  comes  no  call  for  hurry. 
I  dislike  to  dodge  in  and  out  or  play  hide  and 
seek  with  a  president ;  it  is  not  seemly.  And 
the  fact  that  our  friend  would  tolerate,  and 
might  even  encourage  the  familiarity  on  my  per- 
sonal part,  offer  best  reasons  why  I  should 
avoid  it." 

"  You  make  yourself  too  modest,"  said  I. 

None  the  less  I  was  touched  to  admiration 
with  this  decent  sense  of  the  proprieties  on 
Noah's  part.  It  stood  a  pity  it  found  imita- 
tion by  so  few. 

"  What  is  it  to  be,  then?  "  I  asked. 

11  You  need  not  be  told,"  said  Noah,  "  how 
the  President's  note  to  the  Vice-President, 
added  to  Rhetz's  report  of  the  White  House 
views  on  Nullification,  Secession,  and  kindred 
hangman  topics,  has  made  a  flutter.  Your  Pal- 
metto folk  who  plot  for  Nullification  fear  the 
President.  Being  so  far  right,  they  then  step 
aside  for  error;  they  fall  to  fond  imaginings 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

that,  for  all  his  violence  of  phrase  to  Rhetz,  the 
President,  in  return,  fears  them.  They  believe, 
were  he  to  count  their  power,  he  would  not  dare 
them  to  any  last-ditch  opposition.  Then,  too, 
the  leaders  are  not  wholly  satisfied  with  the 
Rhetz  returns.  Thus  a  situation  is  framed 
where  some  stronger  light  on  the  President's 
intentions,  together  with  the  true  news  of  those 
lengths  to  which  he  stands  ready  to  go,  and 
whether  an  ultimate  resort  would  call  for  rifles 
and  then  the  gallows,  is  deeply  to  be  desired. 
And  these  tavern  conversations  and  talks  of  the 
corridors  have  for  their  object  the  President's 
development  along  the  lines  exhibited." 

"And  this  is  highly  the  natural  thing,"  said 
I.  "  Have  our  anxious  ones  invented  any  trap 
wherewith  to  catch  that  word  they  seek?" 

"They  will  search  for  it  in  this  wise,"  said 
Noah;  "  thus  canters  the  plan:  They  look  to 
a  day  far  ahead,  but  it  will  be  with  them  in  time. 
They  have  settled  on  Jefferson's  birthday  to 
make  a  test  of  the  President  and  discover  what 
he  would  do  should  South  Carolina,  with  Cal- 
houn,  abrogate  a  tariff  and  defy  government  in 
the  port  of  Charleston.  The  occasion  will  be 
in  honor  of  the  Man  of  Monticello.  Jefferson's 
memory  and  its  graceful  illustration  will  serve 
as  the  cause,  ostensible,  of  that  banquet ;  really, 
the  affair  is  to  be  twisted  for  Nullification. 

343 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

There  will  come  a  score  of  toasts ;  and  each 
to  exalt  the  state  at  the  cost  of  the  nation,  and 
argue  treason  holy.  The  speeches  will  follow 
of  a  piece  with  the  toasts.  Calhoun  and  his 
cohorts  will  crowd  the  tables  ;  applause  will  be 
extant  for  every  sentiment  of  disunion;  in  short, 
they  devise  a  States  Rights  gathering  where 
Nullification  and  the  rebellious  spawn  of  it  shall 
gain  a  broad  endorsement." 

"And  where  does  the  General  come  into 
their  machinations?" 

"  The  President  will  be  invited  to  attend. 
Should  he  come,  he  will  be  given  the  Chair's 
right  hand.  The  Calhoun  folk  will  read  his 
face  while  their  toasts  of  treason  are  flaunted. 
They  will  ask  him  for  a  sentiment.  They  be- 
lieve that  his  courses  to  come,  as  he  designs  them, 
can  not  fail  to  find  disclosure.  They  hope  to 
gain  the  measure  of  his  apprehensions.  When 
they  once  have  the  pattern  of  the  President's 
hopes  and  fears,  and  learn  his  timid  limits,  they 
think  those  boundaries  of  safety  beyond  which 
Nullification  must  not  push  will  be  deter- 
mined." 

"  Now,  if  these  schemers,"  I  cried,  "  own 
no  capital  save  the  General's  timidity,  they  are 
indeed  in  bankrupt  case." 

"  They  build  on  sand,"  said  Noah.  "  But 
that  fact  of  sand  is  precisely  what  they  do  not 

344 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

know.  However,  the  President  may  teach  them 
with  what  light  he  sees  fit.  Should  he  decide 
to  prolong  their  night  of  doubt,  he  has  but  to 
stay  away." 

"  And  how  would  our  black  gentry  con- 
strue his  absence  ?" 

"  Assuredly  they  would  incline  to  believe 
he  was  afraid." 

"  Why,  then,"  cried  I,  "  it  might  be  difficult 
to  say  that  the  General  will  or  will  not  attend 
a  gathering  of  treason  scheduled  more  than 
three  months  away.  There  is  this  to  be  recalled, 
however ;  the  General  has  done  few  things  be- 
cause he  was  afraid." 

"  But  it  is  well,"  returned  Noah,  "  to  have 
the  President  aware  of  what  is  in  store.  He 
will  own  the  larger  space  for  preparation.  The 
gathering  will  continue  a  sort  of  secret  for  six 
weeks  to  come  ;  nor  is  the  traitor  color  thereof 
to  be  shown  until  a  glass-and-bottle  stage. 
When  courage  is  high  and  caution  fled,  rebel- 
lion will  be  unpacked.  You  observe  how  sur- 
prise is  arranged  for.  There  will  be  hawks'- 
eyes  to  catch  the  trend  of  presidential  thought 
concerning  it.  There  lies  open  the  whole  plot 
for  you." 

"  And  many  thanks,"  said  I.  "  Your  warn- 
ing, as  you  remark,  has  the  mighty  merit  of 
being  early.  Rest  secure  the  General  will  profit 

345 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

by  it ;  he  may  even  contrive  some  counter 
reason  for  amazement  that  shall  become  to 
our  folk  of  Secession  the  very  mother  of 
dismay." 

When,  now,  Noah  was  about  to  go,  he 
came  back  from  the  door  with  a  new  thought. 

"This  on  Rivera's  word,"  said  he.  "  The 
boy,  however,  is  to  be  trusted  when  he  tells 
merely  what  he  sees  and  hears,  and  is  not  asked 
to  think.  There  would  seem  to  be  a  rough 
Maryland  brood  to  hang  about  the  tap-rooms — 
as  many  as  ten,  all  told.  They  belong,  so  to  say 
it,  with  that  Catron  whom  we  think  of  now  and 
then  for  the  pleasure  he  gave  us  at  Gadsby's. 
Catron,  somewhat  the  worse  of  his  sword-arm, 
is  also  in  town.  These  ruffians  use  your  name 
and  mine,  and  never  in  a  way  of  praise.  Should 
you  go  about  the  roads  of  nights,  carry  an  ear 
for  ones  to  come  up  behind.  Also,  walk  warily 
where  corners  are  dark." 

"And  you?"  said  I,  laughing  at  the  comic 
twist  with  which  Noah  ornamented  his  coun- 
sel ;  "  and  you  ?  Have  you  gone  upon  precau- 
tions?" 

"  No  more  than  you  see,"  said  Noah, 
bringing  to  light  a  knife  of  peculiar  make.  "  I 
have  no  great  burden  of  respect  for  just  one 
man,  however  urgent  his  irritation  or  its  rea- 
son. But  a  horde,  and  the  members  to  be  of 
346 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

midnight,  hangdog  sort,  arouses  the  latent  pru- 
dence of  my  race,  and  I  comfort  my  nervous- 
ness with  toys  like  this."  Here  the  queer 
knife  made  a  flourish. 

I  took  the  weapon  from  his  hand.  It  was 
one  of  those  new  knives  called  a  bowie,  and  the 
first  in  my  fingers.  There  was  a  buckhorn 
haft,  and  the  9-inch  blade  showed  thick  at  the 
back  with  plenty  of  steel.  This  gave  it  weight, 
and  it  balanced  in  one's  hand  like  a  hatchet,  and 
all  sanguine  and  hopeful  to  the  feel. 

"It  is  a  Maryland  conception,"  said  Noah, 
"  and  therefore  a  most  fitting  rebuke  to  what 
thugs  shall  come  out  of  that  commonwealth 
on  a  mission  for  one's  disaster."  Then,  reclaim- 
ing the  bowie :  "  The  courage  of  a  race  ap- 
pears in  the  length  of  its  weapons.  The 
shorter  the  weapon  the  hardier  the  strain 
Now,  whoever  devised  that  knife  had  a  Norse 
heart  in  him ;  his  instinct  was  to  go  close  in  to 
his  enemy,  and  come  back  covered  with  blood." 

"  And  do  you  believe,"  said  I,  "  those  fel- 
lows of  whom  Rivera  tells  were  brought  here 
by  that  Catron  to  work  a  revenge  for  him  ?" 

"  They  are  here  by  favor  of  his  money, 
truly,"  responded  Noah,  "  as  Rivera  over- 
heard them  say.  And  for  that  revenge  you 
speak  of,  it  will  be  long  ere  Catron  works  one 
for  himself  in  person,  since  his  arm  has  turned 

347 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

dead  in  deference  to  my  rapier.     He  could  not 
so  much  as  point  a  pistol  with  it." 

These  words  of  Catron  and  his  ruffians  did 
not  dwell  with  me  seriously ;  they  were  the 
sooner  thrust  out  of  mind  because  the  Gen- 
eral, not  a  moment  behind  Noah's  going,  came 
into  my  room.  On  hearing  of  the  latter's 
visit,  he  was  active  at  first  to  call  him  back. 
But  on  another  thought,  he  gave  that  up ;  full 
of  a  new  notion  of  concern  to  Peg,  he  would 
have  my  view  of  it. 

"  Now  I  have  a  decided  humor,"  observed 
the  General,  throwing  himself  into  Peg's  chair 
— which  was  consistent  enough  since  he  came 
upon  Peg's  good — "  I  have  grown  to  a  decided 
humor  that  Peg  shall  rout  these  carpet  Red- 
sticks  who  would  conspire  for  her  defeat.  The 
more,  perhaps,  since  the  chief — if  that  be  fit 
title  for  a  lady — is  wife  of  our  Vice-President, 
and  moving,  as  she  sees  it,  for  his  interest  of 
politics  against  me.  Peg  must  and  shall  tri- 
umph ;  to  lose — aside  from  what  we  might  per- 
sonally feel — would  spell  nothing  short  of  her 
destruction.  And  a  war,  mark  you,  which 
combed  a  country  of  its  last  of  life,  would 
mean  no  more  for  any  individual." 

"  Why  then,"  I  said,  "  you  can  not  be  more 
deeply  set  on  Peg's  success  than  I." 
348 


THE    GENERAL    MAKES     PROVERBS 

"  Of  a  truth,  no  !"  retorted  the  General, 
with  his  shrewd  grin;  "  do  not  imagine  I  had  a 
doubt  of  it.  But  here  is  what  I  have  been 
turning  in  my  head  for  a  question.  The  White 
House,  socially,  they  tell  me,  is  of  immense 
consequence.  Now,  I  have  decided  to  endow 
Peg  with  this  coign  of  vantage  to  be  an  aid  for 
her  plans.  For  myself,  I  shall  follow  Peg's 
flag ;  I  shall  implicitly  take  her  commands.  She 
shall  hold  the  White  House  for  her  reserve;  or 
have  it  on  either  wing;  or  she  may  head  a 
charge  with  it." 

"  And  do  you  think  to  surprise  me  with 
this?"  I  returned.  "I  knew  how  you  would 
thus  conduct  yourself  from  the  beginning." 

"  I  am  glad  to  have  been  so  flattered  in  your 
thoughts,"  said  the  General,  dryly.  "  I  may 
take  it  you  forestalled  my  action  by  consider- 
ing what  should  be  your  own.  However,  now 
that  we  are  come  by  these  sage  decisions  to 
put  Peg  in  control  of  us,  I  hold  it  excellent  to 
have  her  over  and  learn  her  views.  Perchance, 
after  all,  she  may  mislike  us — these,  her  volun- 
teers— and  give  us  our  dismissals." 

"Shall  I  send  word  for  her?"  I  asked. 
Mighty  ready  was  I  for  any  reason  that  should 
bring  Peg  walking  our  way. 

349 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

"  It  is  what  I  would  propose,"  said  he. 
"The  sooner  Peg  knows  of  these,  her  troops, 
the  sooner  she  can  sketch  her  line  of  battle. 
Send  your  Jim  ;  he  has  doubtless  learned  the 
way  to  Peg's  on  those  rose  errands." 

The  General's  humor  would  court  a  risk 
of  being  overtaxed  with  a  too  much  concern 
for  those  roses  to  Peg.  Some  day  I  might  ask 
him  to  observe  as  much,  and  to  seek  newer 
reason  for  his  jesting.  There  is  such  a  word 
as  threadbare,  but  in  conjunction  with  my  floral 
sendings  to  Peg,  which — and  properly — still 
went  on,  and  his  endless  references  thereunto, 
the  General  would  appear  to  live  in  ignorance 
of  it.  However,  I  did  not  proceed  for  his  en- 
lightenment at  this  time,  but  put  it  off  to  a 
more  sour  leisure  and  a  cloudier  day. 

Jim  was  sitting  near  a  hall  window,  ruefully 
considering  the  snow  through  the  pane.  Jim's 
tropic  blood  would  shrink  from  winter,  and,  as 
though  in  sympathy  with  what  were  probably 
his  feelings,  he  crooned  in  a  most  dismal  vein : 

u  Rain  come  wet  me,  sun  come  dry  me, 
Take  keer,  white  man,  don't  come  nigh 
me." 

"  Is  that  another  of  those  inspirations  of 
Polly  Hines  of  the  'Possum  Trot  ?"  I  asked. 

35* 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

"Why,  no,  Marse  Major,"  said  Jim,  "It's 
a  good  ol'  Cumberland  ditty  jes'  d'same.  Jim 
sings  'em  when  he's  thinkin'  of  d'folks  in  Ten- 
nessee. It  sort  o'  he'ps  Jim  to  see  'em.  Thar's 
times  when,  if  Jim  sings  long  enough,  d'folks 
back  thar  nacherally  seems  to  rise  right  up 
befo'  Jim." 

"Those  are  surely  advantages,"  said  I, 
"  and  if  I  thought  it  might  bring  me  such  for- 
tune, I  would  strike  up  a  tune  for  myself.  Since 
you  appear  to  be  in  touch  with  them,  tell  me 
what  is  going  on  among  our  people  at  home." 

Jim,  with  his  own  color  and  on  a  capital 
made  up  of  a  dried  snake's  head,  the  smoke- 
cured  cud  of  a  cow,  and  the  several  feet  of  a 
rabbit — "  a  graveyard  rabbit,  cotched  in  d'dark 
of  d'moon,"  was  Jim's  description — set  up,  you 
should  understand,  for  a  seer.  In  a  compliant 
spirit  of  fun,  I  was  wont  to  countenance  Jim  in 
these  weird  assumptions. 

"  Tell  me  what  they  do  in  Tennessee,"  I 
repeated. 

"Jim's  afeerd  to  try,  Marse  Major,"  said 
Jim,  shaking  his  head  as  one  who  distrusts  his 
powers.  "  You-all  can  see  yourse'f,  that  camped 
yere  as  we-all  be,  millions  an'  millions  of  miles 
away,  tellin'  what  goes  on  in  Tennessee  aint 
easy.  Under  d'most  fav'ble  conditions,  it's 
what  Jim  would  call  a  long  shot  an'  a  limb  in 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

d'way.  An'  you  hyar  Jim  !  thar  aint  been  no 
fav'ble  conditions  cirklin'  round  him  since  ever 
you  turns  d'key  on  that  demijohn.  Jim  aint 
got  over  thinkin'  you-all  acts  plumb  hasty 
about  that  demijohn,  Marse  Major." 

"  Well,  perhaps  I  did,"  said  I,  "  and  so  far 
as  a  dollar  will  go  " — here  I  tossed  Jim  a  Mex- 
ican— "  towards  repairing  the  injury,  I  am  ready 
to  make  amends.  Meanwhile  you  are  to  take 
this  note  where  you  take  the  flowers." 

Jim's  confidence  in  Peg  had  long  ago  been 
established,  and  he  was  no  more  ploughed  of 
those  fears  which  arose  to  furrow  him  during 
our  earlier  days  at  the  Indian  Queen.  He 
promptly  took  my  note — one  which  employed 
the  General's  name — and  with  it  the  Mexican 
coin,  and  went  about  his  errand. 

"  It's  monstrous  remark'ble,  Marse  Major," 
said  Jim,  as  he  pocketed  the  silver,  "  how  money 
does  'liven  an'  limber  a  man  up.  Now  that  dol- 
lar shore  makes  Jim  feel  as  spry  as  a  gray  squir- 
rel; it  mos'  certainly  do!" 

I  was  not  without  my  alarms  for  Peg's 
coming ;  but  when  she  tripped  in  upon  the 
General  and  myself,  it  was  as  balm  to  my 
bruised  nature  to  feel  on  her  part  some  quick 
leniency  towards  me,  and  a  certain  tacit  sweet- 
ness— somewhat  sorrowful,  but  none  the  less 
good — to  which  I  had  been  alien  since  the  day 

35* 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

I  laid  those  witless  strictures  upon  Eaton  for 
that  he  was  conceived  without  a  soul.  This 
gentle  attitude  of  Peg's  came  upon  me  like 
summer  weather,  touching  everything  with  sun- 
shine, and  the  hour  took  on  a  sudden  pleasant 
value.  Peg  could  not  fail  to  see  the  change  ; 
and  even  the  General  would  be  aware  of  that 
improvement. 

"  Now  you  must  have  brought  June  in 
your  apron,"  said  the  General,  playing  with 
Peg.  "  In  any  event,  you  have  thawed  our  frigid 
friend  here.  He  has  been  frozen  for  days,  and 
now  you  see  his  face  glows  like  harvest-home." 

"  If  that  be  true,"  laughed  Peg — quite  her 
old  beautiful  laugh,  too,  and  not  a  laugh  con- 
trived solely  for  the  General,  but  with  a  share 
for  me — "  if  that  be  true,  I  must  show  more 
pains  to  come  often,  and  not  make  my  stay  so 
short  as  has  been  my  wont.  I  did  not  know 
that  I  was  such  a  blessing." 

The  General  would  make  Peg  have  her  old 
chair  by  my  desk,  which  showed  me — and  I 
wondered  over  it  not  a  little — how  he  was  ob- 
servant beyond  what  I  had  supposed,  to  be 
thus  sharp  on  that  small  point  of  where  Peg 
would  sit  when  in  confab  with  me.  When 
Peg  was  throned  in  her  old  place — and,  to  my 
eyes,  she  filled  the  room  with  a  kind  of  glory — 

353 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

the  General  drew  up  his  own  chair  so  as  to  put 
us  three  to  be  the  corners  of  a  triangle. 

''  We  have  brought  you  here,"  quoth  the 
General,  giving  his  face  a  droll  expression  by 
which  one  might  tell  him  to  be  in  a  frame  of 
amiable  lightness,  "we  have  brought  you  here, 
the  good,  thawed  Major  and  I,  to  make  a  des- 
pot of  you.  We  draw  towards  New  Year's 
Day,  when  our  society  Redsticks  will  start 
upon  the  warpath.  We  desire  to  put  ourselves 
and  our  White  House,  and  all  we  have  besides, 
in  your  hands.  You  have  but  to  publish  your 
orders,  and  lo  I  we  carry  them  out.  Being 
now  set  to  rule  over  us,  the  Major — and  I  per- 
ceive with  joy  he  is  quite  warmed  through — 
would  crave  your  commands  for  him.  As  for 
myself,  you  have  had  only  to  lift  your  finger  to 
dispose  of  half  my  kingdom  since  ever  that 
day  when  I  lay  dying  and  you  revived  me  with 
the  name  of  Calhoun." 

When  he  said  this,  the  General  beamed  on 
Peg  in  his  tolerant,  paternal  fashion,  while  for 
my  side  I  sat  silent,  yet  the  happiest  one  of  all, 
since  I  was  growing  sure  and  more  sure  with 
every  moment  how  my  Peg  of  the  old  days  had 
of  a  truth  come  back.  I  would  not  stop  to 
query  how  or  why;  it  was  enough  to  have  it 
so,  and  the  music  that  went  singing  in  my 
heart  with  this  white  surprise  of  joy  was  near 
354 


THE  GENERAL  MAKES  PROVERBS 

to  betraying  me  into  humming  a  tune — a  burst 
of  harmony,  had  I  been  weakly  guilty  of  it, 
which  the  General  would  have  made  the  mate- 
rial of  his  mirth  for  so  long  a  term  it  would 
weary  him  who  sought  to  measure  it. 

"  And  I  am  to  order  you  and  your  White 
House  up  and  down  in  my  campaign?"  cried 
Peg,  sparkling  forth. 

"  Have  I  not  told  you  how  you  are  to  be 
a  despot?" 

"  And  I  may  have  a  dinner,  a  reception,  or 
a  dance,  or  what  I  will — the  carpets  up  in  the 
East  Room,  if  I  choose?" 

"  Your  word  shall  be  as  Aladdin  magic 
among  us,  your  very  hint  a  law." 

"Well,  then,"  cried  Peg,  whose  smile  was 
a  bright  comrade  for  the  General's,  "  well, 
then,  now  that  I  am  clothed  of  this  high  estate^ 
I  must  not  begin  by  being  rash.  Let  me  con- 
sider I"  And  with  that  Peg  put  her  little  hand 
to  her  brow  with  such  another  air  of  jaunty 
profundity  I  would  have  clinked  down  a  for- 
tune to  have  had  her  on  canvas  just  as  she  sat — 
Peg,  in  the  great  chair  that  but  an  hour  gone 
was  mocking  me  as  my  most  hateful  enemy, 
and  which  now  would  be  the  friendliest  thing 
in  life. 


355 


CHAPTER  XII 

HOW   PEG   WOULD    WEAR   THE   CORAL. 

"This  is  how  I  shall  do,"  said  Peg  at 
last,  and  after  the  General  and  I  had  waited 
upon  her  small  profundity  for  some  space; 
"  this  shall  be  my  plan.  We  will  have  the 
White  House  for  a  reserve,  then.  The  day  for 
our  cabinet  folk  to  receive  their  friends  will  be 
Tuesday — the  procession  begins  with  the  first 
Tuesday  to  follow  New  Year's  Day.  Our  good 
little  Secretary  of  State  has  suggested,  inasmuch 
as  I  am  to  preside  for  him,  that  his  house  and 
mine  be  open  only  on  alternate  cabinet  days. 
In  short,  we  will  receive  together.  On  one  Tues- 
day he  will  be  at  my  house ;  on  the  next,  when 
my  house  is  closed,  I  will  take  stand  in  his 
drawing  room  and  receive  our  guests  for  him. 
You  know,  too,  how  I  am  to  be  the  head  for 
what  functions  occur  at  the  British  and  Russian 
legations  and  act  as  Lady  of  the  Mansion  for 
our  friends,  the  Viscount  Vaughn  and  Baron 
Krudener.  Thus  I  begin  with  a  double  recep- 
tion in  my  house  for  the  good  little  secretary 
and  myself ;  then  at  Krudener's  ;  then  at  the 
good  little  secretary's  ;  and  then  with  the  Eng- 
356 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

lish.  After  that,  we  commence  again  at  my  own 
home." 

"  And  when  do  you  march  my  White 
House  upon  this  desperate  field  ?"  demanded 
the  General,  with  much  gaiety  of  mien.  Peg's 
vivacious  recount  of  how  she  should  move  her 
social  troops  delighted  him  no  little.  "In  what 
manner  will  I  be  made  of  use?" 

"Why,  then,"  said  Peg,  "  after  the  recep- 
tion at  the  English  house  if  you  will,  you  may 
crive  me  a  dinner,  with  a  dance  in  the  big  East 
Room?"  This  was  spoken  in  manner  dubious 
and  with  the  lifting  inflection  of  a  request. 
"  Also,  though  it  be  much  to  ask,  I  could  wish 
mightily  for  you  to  come  in  person  to  my  recep- 
tion. It  would  be  a  most  convincing  initial." 

"And  you  doubt  my  coming?"  asked  the 
General,  beamingly. 

"  It  would  be  most  unusual  for  a  president," 
said  Peg,  shaking  warning  head.  "  The  gos- 
sips would  scarce  survive  the  shock  of  it." 

"  My  life,"  observed  the  General,  in  a  most 
satisfied  way,  "  has  been  made  up  of  shocks  to 
other  folk." 

"  But  you  must  consider,"  urged  Peg, 
"  how  your  appearance  in  any  one's  house 
would  be  held  a  letting  down  of  your  dignity. 
Indeed,  in  austere  quarters,  where  the  regular 

357 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

is  as  a  god,  it  would  be  regarded  for  a  no  slight 
rent  in  your  robes." 

"And  yet,  child,  I  shall  come."  This  the 
General  offered  in  a  manner  indescribably  good. 
11 1  have  been  no  man  of  precedent  in  my  time  ;  I 
care  little  for  what  was,  but  much  for  what  is 
presently  right.  I  shall  come  to  your  reception  ; 
more,  I'll  stay  until  you  give  me  leave  to  go. 
If  to  be  in  the  house  of  my  friend,  or  to  show 
him  courtesy  who  has  shown  me  only  favor  and 
good  service — if  that  be  to  establish  a  rent  in 
my  presidency,  I'll  even  promise  to  have  it  a 
thing  of  rags  and  patches  before  ever  I  am 
done." 

"Then  you  will  come!"  exclaimed  Peg. 
"Now  shall  we  go  bravely  through  !  For,  you 
are  to  know,  so  much  of  social  concession  or 
countenance  is  born  of  nothing  save  fear  of 
loss  or  hope  of  place,  that  the  herd  will  collect, 
bowing  and  smiling  and  shining  like  the  sun, 
wherever  you  are  known  to  be." 

"These  be,  truly,  most  satisfying  maps 
you  draw,"  remarked  the  General,  quizzically, 
"  and  yet  I  do  not  see  how  we  are  to  tell  when 
victory  is  ours.  Now,  in  war  the  enemy  sur- 
renders or  runs  away." 

"  In  the  salons,"  said  Peg,  laughing  at  the 
General's  quaint  twists,  "  triumph  turns  to  the 
mere  question  of  numbers  added  to  quality. 
358 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

It  is  a  matter  of  'Who?'  and  'How  many? — 
a  count  of  carriages  to  your  gate.  But  the 
query  of  quality  is  uppermost.  Now,  your 
presence  at  my  house  will  outweigh  the  world, 
should  it  be  so  foolish  as  to  gather  itself  to- 
gether against  us  in  the  camps  of  the  foe." 

"Then  you  are  indeed  very  safe,"  said  the 
General,  "  since  I  shall  be  with  you  as  I've  said. 
Also,  you  are  to  have  your  dinner  and  that 
East  Room  ball  to  follow,  on  what  day  you  lay 
the  finger  of  your  pretty  preference.  Even 
though  I  lacked  the  reason  of  my  affection,  I 
still  could  do  no  less  for  so  beautiful  an  enemy 
of  Calhoun.  But  you  spoke  of  Van  Buren. 
How  did  our  round  little  friend  go  about  his 
proposals  of  those  joint  receptions?  I  have  a 
curiosity  as  to  that  argument  which  should  lead 
him  to  this  kindly  wisdom ;  for,  let  me  remind 
you,  it  is  a  stratagem  worthy  of  a  Cassar,  and 
one,  besides,  to  smell  most  humanly  of  what  is 
honest  and  staunch,  this  phrasing  of  a  situation 
where  your  ill-wishers  must  become  his  ill-wish- 
ers and  his  friends  take  on  terms  of  friendship 
for  you.  How  did  Van  Buren  go  upon  that 
proposition,  child?" 

"  In  the  oddest  way,  then,"  smiled  Peg. 
"  He  said  that  because  we  were  both  of  tavern 
origin,  with  sires  to  keep  houses  of  call,  and 
since  there  might  come  proud  folk  to  frown 

359 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

upon  us  for  that,  it  were  a  wisest  thing,  and 
one  to  make  for  the  ease  of  them  and  us,  to 
hold  ever  our  receptions  in  common.  Folk 
then  might  come,  or  stay  away,  and  all  with  a 
prodigious  saving  of  effort,  whether  of  com- 
pliment or  insult,  to  every  one  concerned.  But, 
of  course,"  said  Peg,  at  the  close,  her  eye  a  bit 
wet,  "  it  was  only  his  goodness  to  do  this." 

"  Now,  I  believe  nothing  of  that  sort," 
declared  the  General,  stoutly.  "  Child,  I  do 
not  know  by  what  paths  you  descend  to  this 
modest  esteem  of  yourself,  but  it  in  nowise 
shakes  the  fact  that,  with  the  last  of  it,  you 
grace  and  illustrate  and  honor  the  best  room 
you  enter  or  the  best  arm  to  lean  on  in  the 
land." 

Thus  spoke  the  gallant  General  from  his 
heart ;  and  to  me  it  was  like  milk  and  honey 
to  only  hear  him.  In  the  finish  he  turned  his 
eyes  my  way. 

"  And  where  be  your  words  in  this  coun- 
cil?" demanded  the  General.  "  Have  you  lost 
the  will  to  speak?" 

Now,  I  had  kept  myself  mighty  quiet  since 
Peg  was  come  back  to  her  throne.  For  one 
thing,  the  simple  sight  of  her,  and  she  friendly, 
was  enough  to  overflow  my  cup  of  happi- 
ness ;  moreover,  I  owned  to  some  lurking 
tear  of  Peg,  and  imagined  how  I  had  but  to 
360 


How   PEG   WOULD   WEAR  THE   CORAL 

open  my  mouth  to  set  her  anger  again  on  edge. 
At  any  rate,  no  stone  could  have  said  less  than 
did  I  while  Peg  and  the  General  held  this  long 
parley  of  the  drawing  rooms.  When  now, 
however,  the  General  aimed  at  me  direct,  I  was 
bound  to  make  return. 

"Have  you  no  advice  for  us,  then?"  re- 
peated the  General.  "  It  is  not  usual  for 
you  to  so  neglect  my  welfare.  Here  you 
permit  me  to  talk  ten  minutes  without  once 
telling  me  fully  and  wholly  just  what  I  should 
do."  All  this  in  tones  of  jesting:  "  Now  you 
would  seem  willing  that  I,  and  our  little  girl, 
too,  should  go  unguided  to  destruction  rather 
than  unstrap  your  wisdom  in  our  cause.  Sir, 
do  you  call  that  the  truth  of  a  friend?" 

"  Perhaps  I  have  no  good  eyes  for  these 
trails,"  said  I.  "  Your  reception  perils  and  how 
to  foil  them  are  things  I  have  not  studied.  I 
would  but  lose  you  your  course  were  I  to  lead 
you." 

"  Mighty  diffident,"  quoth  the  General, 
"  and  most  suddenly  abject !  And  no  good  eyes, 
say  you  ?  Why,  then,  you  could  see  a  church 
by  daylight,  I  take  it !  At  the  least,  you  might 
cheer  folk  on  who  propose  such  deeds  of  car- 
pet daring  as  do  our  little  Peg  and  I." 

With  what  further  raillery  the  General 
might  have  entertained  himself  I  came  not  to 
361 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

know,  for  word  was  brought  to  him,  at  this 
nick,  of  ones  who  awaited  his  coming  in  the 
cabinet  room.  As  he  went  away  he  called 
back  to  Peg,  where  she  still  abode  in  her  leath- 
ern chair: 

"  Then  it  is  settled  and  made.  I  shall  be 
at  your  reception,  to  the  grinding  shock  of 
gossips  and  the  disorder  of  my  presidential 
robes ;  also,  you  are  to  dine  and  dance  in  the 
White  House  whenever  you  sweetly  will." 

"  Where  should  have  lodged  more  kind- 
ness for  me  than  I  now  find  here  ?"  cried  Peg, 
when  the  General  was  quite  gone  forth  of  the 
room.  Then  raising  her  warm  eyes  to  mine 
where  I  sat  wondering,  now  cold,  now  hot, 
would  she  go,  or  would  she  stay  to  talk  with 
me,  she  gazed  upon  me  with  a  steady,  friendly 
look,  which,  for  all  it  lacked  of  distance  or  any 
spirit  of  resentment,  yet  bred  within  me  a 
feeling  of  confusion.  I  knew  not  how  to  meet 
it,  and  I  could  find  no  word  to  say.  "  And 
now,"  said  Peg,  after  a  pause,  but  very  kindly, 
"  let  us  have  a  fair  moment  of  friendship. 
No,"  she  went  on,  stopping  me  with  her  hand 
as  I  was  beginning  to  stumble  forward  upon  an 
apology  for  my  ill  words  against  Eaton,  "  no  ; 
let  me  talk.  You  have  no  genius  of  explana- 
tion ;  you  would  speak  only  to  worsen  things. 
362 


How   PEG   WOULD   WEAR  THE   CORAL 

Besides,  you  dwell  in  the  same  darkness  now 
you  ever  did." 

"And  it  was  to  say  that,"  I  interjected, 
for  I  was  bound  to  some  remark,  "  I  started  to 
speak.  It  was  to  tell  you  how  I  had  no  close 
knowledge  of  your  husband  and  owned  no 
right  of  information  to  criticise  him." 

"Watch-dog!"  cried  Peg,  motioning  with 
little  hands  for  silence,  "  watch-dog,  will  you 
have  done?" 

There  was  something  of  pain  and  reproach 
in  this  to  stop  me  as  though  I  had  been  planet- 
struck.  Nor  could  I  determine  Peg's  feeling, 
nor  catch  the  color  of  it  in  a  least  of  shade. 
For  the  most,  I  felt  amazement,  and  was  set 
back  by  the  plain  agitation  of  her,  an  agita- 
tion greater  than  was  to  have  been  looked  for 
in  one  who  came  solely  to  pardon  me  those 
trespasses  against  good  decent  taste. 

Peg  called  herself  together  with  a  shake 
of  the  head  that  had  for  one  piquant  effect  the 
whipping  of  her  shock  of  curls  about  her  face, 
and  leaving  them  a  tangle  to  fall  forward  on 
her  shoulders. 

"  Hear  me,"  went  on  Peg,  brightening, 
and  peering  out  on  me  in  an  arch  way  through 
her  curls;  "you  are  guilty  of  no  wrong  save 
the  wrong  of  incredible  dullness.  Therefore 
you  are  to  offer  no  defence.  Even  your  dull- 
363 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

ness  should  have  been  a  virtue  in  my  eyes,  since 
it  spoke  only  of  your  honor,  and  told  of  the 
lofty  place  I  hold  in  your  regard."  Now  I 
could  see  how  Peg  was  at  least  accepting  all  I 
had  said,  and  not  one  part  only,  and  would 
give  me  credit  for  a  compliment  to  herself, 
while  she  refused  my  strictures  upon  Eaton. 
"  Observe,  then ;  I  have  resolved  we  two  shall 
be  good  friends.  Better  friends  than  before, 
because  better  to  understand  one  another. 
And  our  trouble  was  my  fault,  too,  not  yours. 
Nor  had  I  one  right  foot  to  go  upon." 

"  Now,  that  is  the  maddest  charity  of 
error!"  cried  I. 

"  It  is  not,  I  say,"  returned  Peg,  her  eyes 
beginning  to  shine  with  the  first  flavor  of  my 
opposition.  "  I  say  it  is  not.  You  had  done 
nothing,  said  nothing ;  while  I — why,  then  I 
hated  you  for  having  eyes  of  lead.  But  we 
will  amend  that."  Here  Peg  turned  pleas- 
antly brisk.  "We  have  been  too  much  abroad 
with  mistakes.  We  have  made  you  too  old 
and  me  too  young  in  our  dealings.  There 
shall  be  a  change,  and  you  and  I  hereafter  are 
to  consider  ourselves  as  folk  of  even  years, 
each  with  the  other.  It  is  but  right,  watch- 
dog, for  though  you  have  no  learning  on  that 
point,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  a  woman  of 
twenty-two  is  very  old  and  very  wise,  while  a 
364 


How    PEG   WOULD  WEAR    THE  CORAL 

man  of  forty-four  is  for  his  youth  and  guile- 
lessness,  or  I  should  have  said  dullness,  a  creat- 
ure insupportable.  Yes,  watch-dog,  for  your 
ignorance  you  are  insupportable ;  but  I  forgive 
you,  since  it  is  your  only  defect."  And  here 
Peg  recovered  her  old  gay  smile,  and  with 
that  my  heart  came  home  again  to  peace. 

"  Well,"  I  said,  when  Peg  would  let  me  be 
heard,  "  I  make  no  secret  that  I  am  over 
happy  with  this  new  prospect  of  your  friend- 
ship. It  was  night  while  I  thought  you  would 
not  forgive  me  my  offence." 

"  Say  no  more  of  it,"  cried  Peg,  sharply, 
putting  her  fingers  in  her  ears.  At  the  same 
time  I  caught  the  milky  shine  of  her  leopard 
teeth.  "  Say  no  more,  or  I  shall  go  back  to 
my  anger  as  a  refuge.  Speak  of  something 
else !  Why  did  you  turn  my  chair  out  of 
door? — my  poor  chair  that  had  done  no 
harm  I"  Peg  caressed  the  arms  of  it  with  her 
palms  as  though  it  were  alive  and  could  know 
and  feel  her  petting.  "You  did  it  because 
you  hated  me." 

"  No,  forsooth  !"  I  protested.  "  Now  if  I 
had  only  hated  you  it  might  have  stayed  till 
the  fall  of  doom.  But  I  could  not  bear  the 
leering,  mocking  look  of  it,  and  me  deserted ; 
it  would  seem  ever  to  brew  for  me  a  cup  of 
365 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

loneliness.     And  so  for   that  I  thrust  it  from 
the  room." 

"Why,  then!  and  that  was  it!"  cried  Peg. 
"  There  you  see,  now,  I  can  be  a  fool  as  well  as 
you." 

"  But  why  did  you  avoid  me?"  I  asked,  in 
my  turn.  "  Surely,  even  for  my  dull  clumsi- 
ness, there  was  need  of  no  such  hard  reproof. 
Come,  now,  why  did  you  stay  away? And  why 
did  you  run  from  me  when  I  went  across  to 
the  square  that  day  to  beg  a  word  from  you?" 

"  Because  I  hated  you,"  returned  Peg,  with 
a  self-satisfied  air.  "  I  hate  you  now,  watch- 
dog, when  I  pause  and  think.  You  had  made 
me  suffer,  and  I  thought  to  see  you  suffer  in 
return.  And  really,  watch-dog,  you  did  suf- 
fer; and  it  pleased  me  much." 

"  I  had  not  thought  you  were  made  with 
such  a  palate  for  revenge,"  said  I,  a  bit  stricken 
with  these  words  of  cruelty.  "  And  yet,  if  it 
so  pleasure  you  to  give  me  pain,  why  then, 
go  on." 

"  Don't,  watch-dog,  don't,"  returned  Peg, 
in  a  voice  whimsically  between  crying  and 
laughing.  "  Only  a  little  more  of  that  and 
you  shall  have  my  tears.  But  can't  you  see 
how  your  suffering  was  a  most  tender  compli- 
ment? I  declare  to  you  that  when  I  would  go 
by  your  door,  the  look  of  grief  to  weigh  upon 
366 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

your  brow  was  better  to  me  than  a  smile.  The 
mere  memory  of  it  would  keep  my  heart  warm 
throughout  a  winter's  day." 

"  It  must  indeed  be  a  topsy-turvy  nature," 
said  I,  u  that  finds  its  pleasure  in  the  woe  of 
friends." 

u  No  recriminations,  watch-dog,"  retorted 
Peff,  in  a  high  vein.  "If  your  dullness  have 
no  limits,  at  the  least  my  patience  has.  Now 
where  did  you  go  when  I  avoided  you  in  the 
square,  and  you  were  too  much  the  coward  to 
lift  the  knocker  of  my  door?  Fie  I  such 
another  fawn-heart  does  not  roam  existence ! 
Where  did  you  go,  I  say?" 

"  Well,  I  would  give  that  vine  of  yours  a 
tree  to  clamber  on  and  lift  it  off  the  ground." 

"  And  did  you,"  demanded  Peg,  eagerly. 

"  The  gods  ruled  otherwise,"  I  returned. 
u  There  was  no  tree  to  be  near  or  possible  for 
your  vine  ;  it  must  live  and  die  on  the  ground." 

Peg  sat  quite  still  and  never  a  response. 
As  I  looked  on  her,  somewhat  with  wonder,  I 
concede,  two  great  drops  welled  from  her  eyes 
and  fell  down  upon  her  hands. 

"  Now  I  would  like  to  hear,"  said  Peg  at 
last,  her  voice  in  a  twitter  of  pain,  "  does  ever 
one  get  what  one  prays  for  in  this  world  of 
ours?  Would  there  be  such  a  word  as  con- 
tentment, now?  However,  I  am  glad,  watch- 
367 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

dog,  your  good  heart  took  you  to  my  vine. 
But  let  it  go  ;  let  it  all  go  !  Let  us  be  friends ; 
and  if  the  day  can't  be  for  us  all  sunshine,  let 
us  own  as  few  clouds  as  we  may.  Now,  we  will 
forget  the  past,  and  start  our  friendship  out 
anew.  We  will  bring  nothing  to  remind  us  of 
days  when  I  was  young  and  cunning  and  you 
were  old  and  dull." 

At  this,  I  involuntarily  looked  for  the  mark 
of  Peg's  leopard  tooth,  where,  round  and  white, 
it  stared  up  at  me  from  my  hand. 

"  Ah,  yes  1"  said  Peg,  softly,  "  I  had  for- 
gotten. There  is  that  sign  between  us  that 
shall  last  through  time.  No,  we  can  never 
forget."  Then,  after  musing  a  moment:  "  But 
we  may  change  the  subject  and  say  the  worst 
of  it.  You  heard  me  lay  out  my  reception 
purposes.  What  do  you  think  of  my  plans?" 

"  Tell  me  first  one  thing,"  said  I.  "When 
it  was  so  much  pleasure  to  behold  me  in  grief 
for  your  absence,  why,  then,  did  you  come 
back?"  That  speech  of  Peg's  was  like  a  dag- 
ger in  my  heart,  and  I  would  have  her  draw  it 
out  with  some  kindness  of  explanation.  "  Why 
did  you  come  back,  then  ?" 

11  The  mere  sorrow  of  it  brought  me 
back,  watch-dog,"  said  Peg,  and  her  words 
were  music  in  my  ear.  "  It  came  finally  to 
where  I  would  sooner  suffer  than  have  you  suf. 

368 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

fer.  That  is  the  woman  nature  of  me.  The 
sheer  truth  is,  I've  been  on  my  way  back  to 
you  for  days.  When  I  followed  you  in  the 
square,  it  was  with  a  full  purpose  of  taking 
your  arm  and  walking  with  you  as  in  the  old 
time." 

"And  why  didn't  you?" 

"Just  as  I  would  have  done  so,  I  was 
caught  up  in  a  little  swirl  of  hatred  which  car 
ried  me  away  from  your  side.  It  didn't  last 
the  moment,  but  by  the  time  it  was  gone  the 
chance  had  taken  flight.  There  is  one  thing  1 
should  tell  you,  however ;  at  such  a  time  you 
must  not  palter  with  a  woman."  Peg's  tones 
were  uplifted  to  the  pitch  severe.  "  Do  you 
know  what  you  should  have  done  that  day  ? 
You  should  have  seized  me  by  the  shoulder  as 
you  did  that  spy  who  dogged  us ;  you  should 
have  stopped  me  flush  and  full.  Without  ex- 
cuse or  explanation  or  pretense  of  remorse  for 
what  had  been,  you  should  have  made  me  take 
your  arm.  You  might  have  found,  had  you  so 
willed  it,  that  for  all  my  high  head  I  would 
follow  you  like  a  dog." 

"  Take  you  by  the  shoulder  I"  cried  I,  some- 
what aroused  to  a  spirit  of  terror.  "  And  that 
would  have  been  polite,  indeed,  and  the  act  of 
a  true  gentleman  !  I  can  see  myself  seizing  you 
by  the  shoulder  !" 

369 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

"  For  all  that,"  contended  Peg,  with  much 
candor,  "  that  is  what  you  should  have  done. 
Remember  :  in  treating  with  a  woman,  while 
one  should  be  a  gentleman — your  word — one 
must  be  a  man.  There  is  this,  too,  about  a 
woman  with  the  man  she  would  love.  She 
likes  warfare  but  she  does  not  want  to  win ; 
victory  would  only  embarass  your  woman. 
Her  instinct  is  rather  for  protection  than  to 
protect,  and  to  find  him  on  whom  she  leans 
weaker  than  herself  might  alarm  her  love  into 
flight.  And  as  for  that  politeness  you  tell  of, 
it  is  an  artifice,  like  a  dress  or  a  house,  and 
good  only  within  a  limit.  There  be  occasions 
when  politeness  to  a  man  is  a  fair  thing  thrown 
away ;  also,  there  be  occasions  when  polite- 
ness to  a  woman  is  nothing  better  than  a  waste 
of  justice.  Watch-dog,  you  should  have  pock- 
eted tbe  '  gentleman  '  for  use  on  a  languid  day ; 
you  should  have  been  all  '  man.'  You  should 
have  seized  me  by  the  shoulder ;  you  should 
have  made  me  go  or  stay,  or  talk  or  stand 
mute,  as  you  willed.  Itwas  for  that  " — and  Peg 
gave  me  this  gravely,  like  some  confidant  Py- 
thoness sure  of  her  Apollo-inspired  word — 
"it  was  for  that, watch-dog,  you  were  made  the 
stronger  of  us  two." 

Now  here  was  a  pretty  word  of  caution! 
It  was  as  the  General  once  said:  one  had  only 

370 


How   PEG   WOULD   WEAR   THE    CORAL 

to  listen,  and  lo  1  one  would  hear  ever  the  sav- 
age stirring  about  in  Peg. 

"  There  is  one  thing  whereof  I  was 
cheated,"  said  I,  after  a  brief  silence,  and 
seeking  to  give  our  talk  a  slighter,  if  not  a 
direction  of  more  reason.  "  You  were  to  give 
me  lessons  in  yourself.  I  looked  forward  to  no 
little  improvement  from  such  good  teaching, 
and  when  I  was  made  to  go  missing  it  I  could 
feel  a  plain  loss  to  myself." 

"  And  perhaps  now,"  observed  Peg,  with 
her  half-merry  glance,  "  I  was  giving  you  a  les- 
son in  Peg  for  every  moment  of  that  frowning 
time.  "  Then,  as  if  in  reply  to  my  look  of  be- 
wilderment :  "  No,  watch-dog  I  went  too  fast 
in  those  threats  to  expound  myself.  You  are 
in  no  sort  prepared  for  so  tremendous  a  course 
af  study." 

"  Wherein  do  I  lack  now?" 

"Why,  you  flounder  in  abyssmal  ignorance 
of  yourself.  To  study  another  with  a  hope 
of  light,  one  should  first  own  some  liberal 
knowledge  of  one's  self.  To  have  gone  about 
to  teach  you  that  difficult  lesson  of  Peg,  you, 
who  are  as  unaware  of  yourself  as  any  bush  or 
tree  or  tuft  of  grass,  would  have  been  as  truly 
wise,  and  a  task  well  worth  one's  while,  as  would 
be  a  discussion  of  Moore  with  that  savage  of 
the  woods  who  has  yet  to  hear  of  the  alphabet. 
371 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

However,  we  will  rest  content  with  you  as  you 
are,  oh,  watch-dog!  oh,  slave  of  Peg,  wearing 
her  mark !  The  more,  for  that  your  splendid 
ignorance  of  both  yourself  and  me  has  to  be 
its  characteristic,  a  white,  high  beauty  like  unto 
some  snow-capped  peak — safe,  too,  since  inac- 
cessible. And  now,  because  I  have  stayed  long  ; 
and  because  we  are  good  friends  again ;  and 
because  we  will  infallibly  quarrel  should  I  re- 
main, I  think,  watch-dog,  I  shall  go  home." 

And  so  Peg  went  away,  singing  a  little 
song  which  was  no  song  but  like  the  whistle  of 
some  thrush,  leaving  me  in  a  calm  of  peace ; 
nor  did  I  fail  to  remember  how  Peg's  tune, 
when  she  departed,  was  the  earliest  music  upon 
her  lips  since  ever  she  would  be  in  anger  with 
me  for  those  ill  opinions  against  Eaton. 

There  was  no  long  time  given  me  to  think 
on  Peg  and  her  whims  of  temper,  black  and 
white,  for  Noah  was  with  me  briskly  on  the 
tail  of  her  going  away.  Noah  brought  with 
him  that  Blair  who  had  come  in  deference 
to  my  note,  to  be  the  rival  of  Duff  Green 
and  organize  the  Globe  as  a  death-stab  to 
Duff's  Telegraph.  I  had  met  Blair  before,  and 
liked  him  ;  most  of  all  was  he  a  favorite 
of  the  General,  for  his  pen  was  fed  of  fire 
and  the  heart  of  his  friendship  was  like  the 
loyal  heart  of  a  dog.  In  person,  Blair  was  a 

372 


How   PEG  WOULD   WEAR    THE    CORAL 

slender,  sickly  man,  but  with  a  great  head  on 
his  shoulders,  and  strange  feverish  eyes  that 
shone  like  jewels.  He  was  not  unlike  the  Gen- 
eral; only  the  latter  stood  vastly  taller,  and, 
while  Blair  was  as  some  fire  to  blaze  and  sparkle 
and  burn,  the  General  would  be  more  that  hur- 
ricane of  wind,  bridled  of  no  man,  sweeping 
flat  as  a  field  of  turnips  everything  to  stand  in 
the  way. 

"  Here  is  a  delicate  question,"  said  Noah, 
with  his  grin  of  the  cynic.  "The  department 
folk  will  give  our  friend,  Blair,  no  public  print- 
ing ;  it  goes  all  to  Duff.  That  should  be 
stopped,  since  your  public  advertising — I  speak 
from  my  place  as  an  editor — is  for  your  news- 
paper as  the  breath  in  its  body." 

"  And  what  would  you  propose  by  way  of 
cure  for  that  felon  perversity  of  our  folk  of 
the  departments  who  will  still  send  printing  to 
the  recreant  Duff?"  This  I  put  laughingly, 
to  be  abreast  of  the  lightness  of  Noah. 

"  Surely,"  said  Blair,  speaking  with  a  kind 
of  eagerness  natural  to  him,  and  which  ran  red- 
hot  throughout  all  he  did  ;  "  surely,  the  presi- 
dent must  make  no  personal  interference. 
Were  he  to  order  printing  out  of  one  paper 
and  into  another,  the  opposite  side  would  use 
it  for  a  club  against  him  to  the  last  day  of  his 


career." 


373 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"But  there  is  a  way,"  said  Noah.  "We 
may  have  advantage  of  the  mean  fears  of  our 
folk  of  place  who  are  ever  prompt  to  read  a 
threat  against  themselves.  Such  egotists  do 
they  grow  to  be  that,  following  a  decade  of 
office  holding,  it  may  not  so  much  as  thunder 
but  your  agitated  desk-man  knows  it  at  once 
for  some  plot  of  heaven's  hand  to  snatch  him 
from  his  pap." 

"  How  would  you  approach  these  fears 
with  an  appeal?"  I  asked. 

"And  there  could  be  nothing  easier," 
quoth  Noah,  "while  missing  every  word  that 
might  look  like  an  order  from  the  White  House. 
You  have  but  to  issue  a  request,  addressed  to 
each  who  is  in  control  of  any  least  of  printing, 
to  send  to  the  president  with  every  month  a 
full  report  of  what  advertisements  he  has  dis- 
pensed and  to  what  imprints.  There  you  have 
it  in  your  claw ;  after  such  notice  not  one  line 
will  go  to  Duff,  but  all  to  Blair.  With  the  one 
stone  you  kill  two  birds ;  the  Telegraph  is  de- 
stroyed while  the  Globe  in  its  fortunes  is  made 
beyond  a  chance." 

"  Your  mighty  proper  suggestion  will  be 
adopted,"  said  I.  "  The  request  you  speak  of 
goes  forth  this  very  day." 

When  Blair  had  departed  the  scene  to 
look  after  the  daily  fortunes  of  his  paper,  Noah 

374 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

and  I,  as  was  much  and  frequently  our  case, 
settled  to  a  mouthful  of  party  gossip.  We 
had  not  run  far,  however,  when  my  Jim  ap- 
peared with  a  word  from  the  General  to  meet 
him  in  his  personal  workshop  on  some  trivial 
concern. 

"  D'MarseGen'ral  trees  Jim  by  d'winder," 
said  that  worthy  black  man,  "  an'  tells  him  to 
ask  you-all,  Marse  Major,  to  come  squanderin' 
along  down  to  his  room.  He  allows,  d'Marse 
Gen'ral  does,  how  he's  got  letters  from  home 
you  might  like  to  see." 

"And  how  is  your  'Marse  Gen'ral'?" 
said  Noah,  for  u  the  red-head  Jew  gentleman," 
as  Jim  ever  referred  to  him,  was  fond  of  mak- 
ing Jim  talk.  "  How  does  your '  Marse  Gen'ral ' 
carry  himself  these  winter  days  ?" 

"  Mighty  toler'ble  an'  tranquil,  thankee, 
sah!"  replied  Jim;  "mighty  toler'ble  an'  tran- 
quil. Jim  on'y  wishes  he  himse'f  was  feelin' 
half  so  good.  But  Jim's  got  a  mis'ry  in  his 
back,  an'  d'rheumatics  in  his  laigs  an'  shoul- 
ders ontwell  he  can't  but  jes'  make  out  to  hob- 
ble 'round.  Yassir ;  them  rheumatics  leaves 
Jim  like  a  fly  in  a  saucer  of  m'lasses ;  he  gets 
about  plumb  slow." 

Jim  furnished  a  most  doleful  air  to  be  the 
frame  for  this  piece  of  news ;  one  might  have 
thought  him  some  flame-enveloped  martyr. 

375 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  At  any  rate,"  said  Noah,  in  tones  of 
greatest  sympathy,  "  you  are  fortunate,  Jim, 
since  now  you  are  an  invalid,  in  having  such  a 
kind,  forbearing  master  as  your  '  Marse  Major ' 
here." 

11  D'Marse  Major  aint  so  mighty  bad," 
observed  Jim,  with  the  face  of  one  who  con- 
siders deeply.  "  Course  he  has  his  spells. 
Thar's  times  when  he's  sort  o'  amiable,  d'Marse 
Major  is ;  an'  then  Jim  nacherally  takes  to  him 
like  a  honeysuckle  to  a  front  porch.  Then 
thar's  other  days  when  Jim  quits  him  an'  goes 
streakin'  it  for  d'tall  grass.  Them's  d'times 
when  d'Marse  Major  takes  to  t'arin'  about 
loose,  an'  carryin'  all  befo'  him  like  a  b'ar  in  a 
hawg-pen." 

Having  disposed  of  the  letter  which  had 
given  the  loquacious  Jim  that  delay  required 
for  these  important  disclosures,  I  put  an  end 
to  them  by  carrying  Noah  away  to  the  Gen- 
eral's room.  He  would  expostulate  and  hold 
back ;  but  I  made  him  come  with  me  on  the 
plea  of  how  the  General  had  asked  to  talk 
with  him  of  that  coming  Nullification  banquet 
to  be  held  at  the  Indian  Queen. 

"  True,  he  has  heard  it  from  me,"  said  I, 
"but  what  then?  You  know  how  folk  are. 
He  would  hear  it  from  you  first-hand." 

While  I  was  running  over  the  General's 
376 


How   PEG  WOULD   WEAR   THE    CORAL 

mails  from  Tennessee,  that  eminent  person 
and  Noah  waded  forth  into  deep  and  animated 
converse. 

"  I  am  rather  glad  than  otherwise,"  said 
the  General,  lighting  the  while  the  usual 
friendly  pipe,  "  for  that  treason  dinner  our 
Calhoun  clique  would  plan.  I  shall  go  ;  should 
they  ask  it,  I'll  even  give  them  a  toast.  I  will 
light  a  torch  for  them ;  I  would  be  the  last  to 
have  it  said  I  let  folk  go  blundering  to  a 
gibbet  in  the  dark." 

"You  recall,"  remarked  Noah,  "how  zeal- 
ous were  certain  influences  for  that  Florida 
post,  and  how  they  would  have  it  go  to  one 
Westfall?" 

"  The  man  Westfall,"  retorted  the  Gen- 
eral, "was  an  utter  weakling.  He  never  would 
have  done  for  such  a  place.  The  Florida  gov- 
ernorship is  of  consequence  ;  its  duties  call  for 
one  of  force.  I  have  thought  on  a  man  for  it, 
but  the  time  has  not  come.  The  present  in- 
cumbent does  fairly  well  for  an  Adams  selec- 
tion." 

"  That  weakness  of  Westfall  to  which  you 
refer,"  said  Noah,  "was,  I  take  it,  no  slight 
merit  in  the  minds  of  those  who  stood  by  the 
elbow  of  his  hope.  It  was  a  part  of  the  Nulli- 
fication scheme,  the  putting  forward  of  West- 
fall." 

377 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  In  what  sort  ?"  asked  the  General.  "  I 
know  how  Calhoun  desired  him,  for  Duff 
Green  told  us  so  much  when  we  were  not  a 
week  in  town." 

"  Westfall's  success  for  the  place  would 
have  linked  to  the  Vice-President  the  richest, 
strongest  elements  in  Pennsylvania.  Then  there 
is  Florida  itself — two-thirds  Spanish  and  by 
no  means  in  love  with  the  balance  of  this  coun- 
try. With  a  weak  governor  in  St.  Augustine, 
and  one  who  owed  his  crown  to  our  Vice-Presi- 
dent, what  should  be  simpler,  in  the  event  of 
secession  in  South  Carolina,  than  to  count  on 
Floridian  men  and  money  for  the  venture?" 

"  They  will  do  as  well  without  their  West- 
fall,"  commented  the  General.  "  Mayhap  they 
will  do  better,  since  had  they  succeeded  for 
him,  it  might  hereafter  have  given  their  rash- 
ness inspiration,  and  turned  them  gallows-ripe. 
One  thing  sure :  let  them  once  rebel  against 
the  law — let  them  but  rise  in  Calhoun's  state 
to  the  law's  defiance — and  I  will  burn  them 
from  the  earth.  They  shall  be  destroyed  root 
and  stalk  and  standing  grass,  with  the  reptiles 
that  crawl  between.  Their  leaders  shall  swing 
for  it  so  surely  as  my  name  is  Jackson  or 
there's  such  a  word  as  '  President '  in  the  land." 
Here  I  come  near  to  the  first  true  social 
test  to  be  put  upon  our  Peg,  and  that,  you 
378 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

will  know,  was  the  reception  which  she  would 
give  as  a  cabinet  lady  at  her  own  home  on  the 
Georgetown  side  of  the  President's  Square. 
And  now,  when  I  am  driven  by  stress  of  this 
tale  to  furnish  you  with  a  handful  of  hints  or 
little  twigs  of  description  concerning  the  busi- 
ness, I  write  as  though  with  fetters  on  my 
wrists.  It  is  because  I  have  no  salon  learning, 
and  was  never  taught  your  lessons  of  chande- 
liers and  wax-lights  and  orchestras  and  tables 
spread  with  elegance  and  palms  and  flowers  and 
folk  brilliant  on  evening  parade,  formidably  en- 
gaged, each  with  a  part  like  people  in  a  play,  in 
bringing  off  one  of  those  encounters  where 
well  dressed  men  and  women  meet  to  crowd 
each  other  and  call  the  trial  a  function.  If  it 
were  to  be  a  battle  or  even  some  quiet-lying 
landscape  with  its  stretch  of  river,  and  a  forest 
to  fringe  the  banks,  and  mayhap  a  mountain 
chain  with  its  plushy  dress  of  pines  to  the 
background,  I  might  not  come  on  so  haltingly. 
But  this,  as  it  were,  is  to  lay  a  fence  of  stone — 
and  that,  you  are  to  witness,  means  a  journey 
full  of  backaches — to  be  here  piling  one  word 
upon  another  for  the  story  of  a  drawing-room 
three  hours. 

Van  Buren  was  himself  Peg's  partner  for 
this  reception — his  own  doors  closed,  as  Peg 
explains  in  rearward  pages  when  she  talks  with 

379 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

the  General.  It  would  be  then,  a  double  re- 
ception, and  both  the  State  and  the  War  De- 
partments to  stand  thereof  the  social  sponsors. 

Word  had  crept  abroad  how  the  General 
himself  planned  a  place  among  the  callers,  and 
at  the  grave  tidings  Duff  Green,  in  his  paper, 
was  driven  to  extremes  of  frantic  ink  over  the 
proposed  lowering  of  the  presidency  to  cabinet 
levels,  which  latter  the  disturbed  Duff  would 
seem  to  think  were  common,  even  if  they  were 
not  bad. 

"The  White  House,"  cried  Duff,  in  his 
shocked  columns,  "  should  not  be  taken  down 
from  that  high  place  of  elevation  in  which  our 
late  president  was  pleased  to  leave  it." 

"Truly,  an  excellent  thought!"  observed 
the  General,  "  to  set  Adams  before  me  for  a 
model!  Why,  man!  from  his  purchase  of  the 
rogue  Clay  down  to  the  last  measure  to  meet 
the  flourish  of  his  pen  and  be  made  a  law 
thereby,  I  call  it  patriotism  to  turn  my  back  on 
every  position  Adams  occupied,  and  the  very 
essence  of  right  to  undo  all  he  did.  Me  to 
follow  Adams !  I  should  as  soon  think  of 
emulating  Billy  Weatherford  and  his  Creeks." 

"  But  why  stand  over  me,"  said  I,  "with 
all  this  arm  tossing  and  threatening  declama- 
tion? It  is  your  Duff  Green  and  not  I  who 
would  thus  drive  you  to  an  Adams  example." 
380 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

"  Well,"  said  the  General,  somewhat  sub- 
dued by  this  thought,  "  you  at  least  are  here 
and  I  must  vent  myself  on  some  one." 

While  both  the  General  and  I  lived  in  a 
deal  of  fog  concerning  such  coils,  neither  of  us 
was  torn  of  doubt  as  to  the  certainty  of  Peg's 
triumph.  Vaughn  and  Krudener,  for  the  favor 
of  Van  Buren,  would  lead  up  the  legation  folk 
as  bell-sheep  lead  a  flock ;  the  military  element 
was  bound  to  Peg's  chariot-wheel  by  merest 
war  department  bonds ;  withal,  the  General's 
presence  alone  would  mean  a  multitude,  and 
that  of  gaudiest  feather,  for  it  asked  no  skill 
of  society  to  know  how  that  same  impulse  of 
self-interest  was  ever  at  work  to  move  it,  as 
much  as  might  be  said  of  any  conspiracy  of 
roughest  politics.  The  General  as  the  present 
source  of  things  temporal  would  be  courted ; 
and  to  that  sycophantish  end  your  swarming 
brood  of  courtiers  would  be  found  tagging  at 
his  back  though  he  were  to  make  a  sulphurous 
pilgrimage  and  seek  the  pit  itself. 

There  came  one  thing,  however,  to  rub 
my  fur  against  the  grain ;  but  this  was  of  the 
week  prior  to  our  Tuesday  of  Peg's  reception. 
It  is  the  great  marvel  how  it  will  ever  be  the 
slight  affair  to  ruffle  one.  I  have  known  a 
rascal  to  crack  off  his  pistol  at  me  for  a  no  bet- 
ter reason  than  strong  drink ;  and  yet  beyond 

.381 


PEGGY  O  NEAI 

a  busy  interest  to  stun  him  and  prevent  a  re- 
turn of  his  experiment,  and  so  settle  safety  in 
my  favor,  my  bosom  went  as  rippleless  of 
wrath  as  any  millpond.  On  the  other  side,  the 
idle  whistle  of  some  fellow,  and  him  outside 
the  house  and  of  no  knowledge  even  of  my 
being,  has  sent  me  off  on  storms  of  rage. 

This  it  was  to  nag  me  into  irritation. 
There  arrived  one  day  a  mighty  casket  of 
jewels  for  Peg — diamonds  and  rubies  they 
were,  and  ones  a  princess  might  have  worn 
with  honor.  They  were  a  gift  from  Eaton; 
for  that  secretary  was  notably  rich  and  owned 
the  treasure-chests  of  an  emperor. 

Peg  said  naught  of  these  trinkets,  whether 
to  the  General  or  to  me,  nor  did  she  show 
them.  But  since  they  came  in  from  New 
York,  employing  for  their  safety  certain  armed 
guardians  of  express,  the  thing  could  be  called 
no  secret.  Moreover,  Eaton  himself  would 
probably  be  the  last  to  smother  the  story  of 
these  chains  and  bracelets  and  brooches  and 
coronets  and  flashing  whatnot,  since  for  what 
else  did  he  buy  them  save  self-love  and  to 
deck  Peg  out  as  one  decks  out  a  horse  on 
gala  days.  That  man  never  loved  Peg ;  it  was 
a  mark  of  sentiment  beyond  him.  He  had  a 
pride  of  her  as  of  a  gem  or  a  picture,  and 
wore  her  beauty  as  one  wears  a  decoration, 

183 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

But  he  no  more  knew  Peg,  no  more  loved 
Peg,  than  cud-cattle  know  and  love  the  stars 
above  their  stolid  heads.  Her  praise  would 
ring  sweet  to  his  ear,  yes  ;  her  loveliness  and 
the  bright  glory  of  her  eyes  would  lighten  his 
face.  Also,  the  moon  will  light  you  and  shine 
again  on  the  face  of  that  chance-hollowed  mud- 
hole  which  the  rains  have  filled  and  the  swine 
enjoyed. 

It  is  but  truth  to  say  that  my  resentment 
of  these  jewels  to  Peg  gave  me  a  pause  of 
uneasiness.  It  was  not  the  little  fact  of  their 
existence  which  bayed  me;  it  was  not  that  I 
went  pricked  as  though  by  nettles  because  of 
these  gewgaws ;  that  was  not  it.  But  why 
should  I  be  pricked  at  all?  Other  folk  would 
bring  diamonds  to  their  wives  or  sweethearts, 
and  you  meet  none  who  owned  to  less  excite- 
ment or  a  colder  interest  thereover  than  myself. 
Why,  then,  should  these  stir  my  pulse  and  set 
my  anger  to  a  trot?  It  were  indeed  a  thing 
most  passing  strange,  and  one  whereof  I  was 
bound  to  find  the  bottom  if  I  called  myself  an 
honest  man. 

The  question  of  my  anger  for  Peg's  jewels 
hung  about  me  like  lead,  I  tell  you ;  for  to 
myself  I  made  free  confession  of  that  wrath 
and  would  hide  nothing  of  it  from  my  con- 
science. I  was  stout  to  drag  myself  to  the 

383 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

bar,  and  to  sit  in  trial  over  my  own  heart.  Was 
it  love  of  Peg  to  move  me  ?  The  General  had 
told  me  how  I  had  been  swept  away  in  love  for 
her  from  the  first ;  but  that  was  his  jest  and 
the  bantering  humor  of  him  at  the  time.  Was 
I  in  love  with  Peg?  And  if  not,  then  where- 
fore fly  to  arms  for  that  Eaton  would  hang  the 
common  gifts  of  man  to  wife  about  her  charms 
and  strive  for  her  delight?  That  was  the  ques- 
tion I  held  before  my  soul's  eyes  and  shook  it 
for  an  answer. 

In  a  trice  the  riddle  was  replied  to ;  the 
reasons  of  my  anger  unrolled  before  me  like  a 
scroll.  It  was  not  that  I  loved  Peg  ;  it  was  my 
certain  sureness  how  Eaton  himself  was  master 
of  no  such  true  sentiment,  nor  one  worthy 
of  the  word.  As  I  have  said,  he  but  held  her — 
being  below  a  better  thought — to  adorn  his 
vanity ;  he  would  wrap  her  in  his  riches  in  the 
vulgarity  of  a  boast.  Peg  was  as  the  feather 
to  his  hat,  the  jewel  to  his  hilt ;  he  trapped  her 
in  brilliants  just  as  he  drunk  from  cut-glass. 
And  knowing  Peg  as  I  knew  her,  and  with  a 
deep  appreciation  of  her  worth,  was  it  miracle, 
or  must  my  heart  be  charged  of  crime,  because 
my  brow  would  flush  to  see  her  thus  abased 
and  set  to  nurse  so  gross  a  self-esteem  ?  Be- 
sides, it  fell  as  a  blow  upon  one's  better  taste, 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

since  to  embellish  Peg  with  such  earthenware 
was  indeed  to  paint  a  lily  and  gild  gold. 

It  was  true,  I  so  much  resented  these 
jewels,  and  they  so  bit  my  feeling  in  advance, 
that  I  went  at  wits'  end  to  fish  forth  some  excuse 
for  being  absent  from  that  reception  and  thus 
avoid  their  tawdry  splendors.  But  when  I 
moved  the  matter,  the  General  was  set  like 
iron  that  I  should  go. 

Were  it  the  General  alone  to  cross  my 
temper  for  this,  I  should  have  run  over  him, 
no  doubt,  and  had  my  way  for  it.  But  next 
stood  Peg  in  the  path.  I  no  more  than 
breathed  a  half-suggestion  of  possible  condi- 
tions to  arise  and  keep  me  from  the  house, 
when  she  glowed  on  me  with  a  look  so  gently 
pleading  that,  without  waiting  for  her  to  speak, 
I  straightway  told  her  I  would  come. 

"And  I  am  glad,  watch-dog,"  said  Peg, 
simply.  "  I  could  give  myself  no  reason,  save  a 
reason  that  would  burn  like  fire,  why  you  should 
stay  away." 

It  should  be  noted,  perhaps,  that  the 
nngical  tale  of  those  gems  ran  in  and  out  of 
the  mouth  of  gossip  for  prior  days,  and  I 
doubt  not  a  purpose  to  look  on  them — for  the 
feminine  eye  is  caught  with  glitter  like  a  black- 
bird, which  hollow  fowl  will  think  of  nothing 
for  a  week  on  end  save  how  to  steal  a  bit  of 

38S 


PEGGY  O  N     E     A     L 

broken  glass — brought  as  many  to  Peg's  recep- 
tion as  did  the  presence  of  the  General. 

And  here,  being  now  upon  the  brink,  I  fairly 
ask  you  what  should  be  the  use  of  setting  forth 
how  the  carriages  rolled  to  the  gate;  and  how 
Peg  stood  like  some  flower  beneath  the  light  of 
a  chandelier — for  these  receptions  were  in  the 
evening — with  her  "  good  little  secretary  "  by 
her  side,  welcoming  the  throngs  to  press  for- 
ward in  her  honor?  The  Calhouns  were  not 
there ;  and,  indeed,  the  folk  from  the  Vice- 
President's  own  state  would  be  obviously  ab- 
sent. The  other  cabinet  folk — that  Calhoun 
trio,  the  ladies  Branch  and  Berrien  and  Ingham 
— did  not  appear ;  but  then  they  were  upon  cer- 
tain similar  receptions  of  their  own.  However, 
there  came  scores  to  have  their  places.  There 
were  the  lion  Webster,  the  courtly  Vaughn, 
Krudener  with  red  heels  to  his  shoes,  red  waist- 
coat, and  earrings  to  his  ears,  Noah  with  his 
black,  dangerous  eyes,  and  a  high-caste  multi- 
tude, besides,  from  Senate  and  House  and  Su- 
preme Court  and  Legations,  and  those  two 
score  other  lofty  lairs  of  your  utter  capital 
fashion.  There  arose  the  never-ceasing  gride 
of  carriages  as  they  came  and  went  incessantly 
upon  the  frozen  gravel ;  there  crawled  the  end- 
less file  of  hand-shaking  folk,  the  grave  and  the 
gay,  the  young  and  the  old,  the  beautiful  and 
386 


How    PEG  WOULD   WEAR   THE    CORAL 

the  ugly,  the  good  and  the  bad — this  last  since 
there  stood  no  process  of  elimination  to  sepa- 
rate the  sheep  from  the  goats  where  all  who 
would  might  come.  And  Peg  went  through  it 
with  a  sweet,  grave  grace  ;  and  even  surly  Envy 
submitted  to  the  verdict  of  a  vast  success  and 
one  to  fix  Peg's  standing  beyond  distrust,  and 
mark  itself,  besides,  as  the  hopeless  Waterloo 
of  her  every  last  ill-wisher. 

The  General,  bright  of  eye  and  unbending 
as  a  bayonet,  was  there  early  to  remain  late. 

"  I  have  enlisted  for  the  campaign,"  said 
he,  "  and  I  shall  stay  while  I  hear  of  one  foe  to 
be  in  the  field." 

Never  had  I  known  him  to  look  better,  and 
the  old-time  deference  wherewith  he  would  be 
about  Peg  so  that  all  might  see  his  regard  for 
her  was  like  a  page  from  chivalry. 

And  now  I  must  tell  a  tale  on  myself,  and 
show  how  this  was  to  twist  into  a  happy  hour 
for  me  and  I  be  harrassed  by  no  sordid  hate- 
fulness  of  those  jewels.  I  had,  for  my  shame 
be  it  told,  gone  to  my  place  in  the  line  of  call- 
ing folk  with  a  reluctance  that  bound  my 
breast  like  a  rope.  I  could  scarce  breathe  for 
it.  The  file  moved  slowly,  but  I  held  my  head 
high,  and,  being  a  tall  man,  looked  easily  over 
Peg  and  did  not  once  rest  my  eyes  upon  her. 

387 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

I  would  escape  the  canker  of  those  barbarous 
rubies  and  diamonds. 

It  was  the  tones  of  a  woman,  who  had  Peg 
by  her  hand,  to  rivet  my  interest. 

"Why!  where  now  be  those  diamonds  I 
heard  so  much  about?"  The  voice  was  of  the 
empty  tin-pan  kind  that  tells  of  society  and 
mighty  little  else.  "Where  be  those  dia- 
monds? Or  was  the  story  false?" 

Then  I  heard  Peg  in  cold  retort  to  our  she- 
savage  and  her  coarse  greed  to  look  on  dia- 
monds. 

"  Why,  I  believe  I  have  a  few  handsful 
somewhere  about  the  house,"  said  Peg.  "  If  it 
be  those  you  are  come  to  see,  I  shall  have  pleas- 
ure in  directing  you  to  my  maid." 

Now  when  quite  close  I  bent  my  slow  eyes 
upon  our  little  Peg.  There  she  stood,  a  lamp 
of  beauty !  and  never  the  sign  of  your  dia- 
monds or  rubies  about  her — nothing  of  orna- 
ment save  a  rose  my  Jim  had  brought,  and  the 
little  coral  of  my  mother's  which  Peg  took  from 
the  cabinet  on  that  summer  day.  As  she  offered 
me  her  hand,  she  lifted  up  her  face  to  mine. 
She  gave  me  no  word  but  the  red  blood  showed 
in  her  cheek  a  match  for  my  coral.  Then  her 
eyes  fell;  and  next,  with  a  heart  full  to  foolish- 
ness of  a  joy  that  was  like  a  mystery,  I  passed 
on  to  walk  the  air  and  join  the  General. 

388 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

"  Our  victory  was  measureless,"  declared 
the  General,  in  the  stiff  manner  of  him  who 
makes  report,  when  late  that  night  he  and  I 
were  about  our  inevitable  pipes  in  his  room. 
The  General  would  discuss  Peg's  reception. 
"  Sir,  it  was  absolute  triumph.  Do  you  know 
how  Peg's  function  compared  with  those  of  the 
enemy?  'Quantity  and  quality' were  her  words; 
you  remember  that.  Do  you  know  on  those 
two  points,  how  our  affair  compared  with 
those  of  Ingham  and  Berrien  and  Branch  ? 
You  do  not  ?  Sir,  you  surprise  me,  and  you  to 
be  a  soldier  whom  I  myself  taught  I  Why! 
how  are  you  to  know  when  we  win  or  lose  if 
you  keep  no  account  of  the  fight?  '  Quantity 
and  quality,'  mark  you  !  that  is  the  test."  The 
General  was  in  towering  spirit  and  as  exalted 
of  brow  as  one  might  wish  to  see.  It  was  like 
the  real  war  to  him.  "  Now,"  he  went  on,  "  I 
was  of  a  mind  to  know  results ;  I  took  meas- 
ures for  a  count  of  noses,  and  a  list  of  your 
folk  who  called  at  those  four  cabinet  houses 
to-day.  Sir,  it  may  please  you  to  hear  that  on 
both  proposals  of  '  quality  and  quantity '  Peg 
and  you  and  I  overpowered  those  Redsticks  as 
ten  would  overpower  one." 

The  General  smoked  on  in  silent  satisfac- 
tion; I  said  nothing,  my  mind  being  wholly 
taken  with  my  coral  on  Peg's  bosom,  and  never 

389 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

mark  of  diamond  or  ruby  for  a  blemish  to  the 
rich  beauty  of  her  neck  and  face  and  the  cata- 
ract of  gold-black  hair  to  fall  about  her  shoul- 
ders. 

"  Peg  is  a  grand  girl !"  mused  the  General. 
"  It  is  pity,  too ;  she  should  have  been  a  man 
and  a  soldier.  And  then  the  pure  taste  of  her ! 
You  have  heard  of  a  peck,  more  or  less,  of 
diamonds  which  Eaton  brought  on  from  the 
North?  I  looked  to  see  them  wreathed  about 
Peg's  neck  or  arms  or  fingers  or  wherever 
heaven  meant  they  should  go.  And,  mind  you! 
not  a  trace  of  them.  'Why,'  says  our  Peg, 
when  I  would  question  her,  '  they  were  of  such 
wondrous  richness  I  thought  it  shame  to  wear 
them  in  my  own  drawing  room — and  me  no 
more  than  a  girl — and  set  them  against  older, 
better  folk  who  would  be  my  guests.  It  would 
have  been  to  over-crow  them,  and  as  though  I 
sought  to  pamper  vanity  at  their  cost.  Where- 
fore, in  compliment,  I  would  not  wear  them, 
but  put  them  all  aside.  Now,  this  bit  of  coral 
is  better,  since  more  modest.  It  was  from  a 
sweetheart,  and  is  the  one  thing  I  love  best  of 
all  the  world.'  Was  there  not  fineness  for 
you?"  demanded  the  General.  "Was  there  not 
magnanimity?  What  other  woman  between 
the  poles  could  have  withstood  her  hands  from 
those  gems  ?  Or  who,  from  mere  kindness  and 
39o 


How  PEG  WOULD  WEAR  THE  CORAL 

to  spare  the  women  about  her  their  own  envy, 
would  have  thrust  them  away  to  don  that  coral 
trifle  in  their  stead  ?  A  tavern's  daughter,  for- 
sooth !  Why,  such  a  spirit  would  give  a  grace 
beyond  her  title  to  a  duchess !  I  know  of 
nothing  more  good  or  noble  to  tell  the  silken 
nature  of  our  little  Peg." 


39* 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    SON   OF  THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

Peg's  war  for  social  eminence  would  now 
move  bravely.  The  tale  of  that  double  recep- 
tion with  its  polite  throngs  pushing  forward 
in  honor  of  her  and  her  "  good  little  secre- 
tary," and  the  General's  presence  thereat, 
stately  yet  deferential,  fluttered  from  lip  to  lip 
like  some  bright  bird.  And,  as  such  birds  will, 
the  farther  it  fluttered  the  brighter  it  grew. 
I've  told  you  how  I  own  no  warrant,  whether 
of  education  or  natural  trend,  to  descant  on 
wax-lights  and  polished  floors  and  satins ;  but 
so  far  as  I  might  trap  the  murmur  of  folk  who 
should  have  such  matters  of  gossamer  and 
music  on  their  tongues'  ends,  the  most  guarded 
decision  went  to  it  that  Peg's  position  had  be- 
come thereby  as  surely  fixed  as  the  pole-star, 
and  might  with  as  much  safety  be  observed 
and  steered  by  whenever  any  of  your  blind 
mariners  of  the  drawing  rooms  should  lose  a 
course  or  find  himself  in  deep,  strange  waters. 

Like  a  great  captain  who  in  the  wake  of 
victory  makes  speed  to  again  strike  the  enemy 


THE    SON    OF  THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

while  yet  the  latter  is  disorganized  and  before 
he  can  re-collect  formation  or  even  hope,  Peg 
was  next  and  swiftly  in  the  field  with  that 
dinner  for  her  glory  at  the  Russian  legation, 
tendered  by  the  wily  Baron  Krudener — he  of 
the  earrings  and  the  scarlet  heels.  The  Tartar, 
as  the  General  called  him,  zealous  for  the  favor 
of  the  General  and  Van  Buren,  was  keen  to 
note  how  a  civility  done  Peg  would  become  a 
key  to  the  best  good  will  of  both.  After 
Krudener's,  came  the  cabinet  reception  at  our 
"  good  little  secretary's,"  where  Peg  would 
reign ;  and  since  Van  Buren  lived  but  a  half- 
dozen  houses  north  from  Peg's,  it  was  hardly 
to  step  beyond  her  own  door.  Then  followed 
the  ball  given  by  the  British  with  Peg  in  the 
place  of  esteem,  and  the  Viscount  Vaughn  to 
lead  Peg  forth  in  the  first  figure  with  his  own 
diplomatic  hand. 

Who  could  have  been  more  delighted  than 
the  General  with  this  splendor  of  salon  success 
now  spread  to  our  pretty  Peg's  uninterrupted 
feet,  and  that  under  the  jaundiced  eyes  of  her 
enemies?  The  General  could  not  be  present 
at  either  the  "  good  little  secretary's,"  the 
Russian  or  the  English  house ;  but  he  was  in- 
domitable to  hear;  and  never  exquisite,  nor 
macaroni,  nor  buck  about  London  town,  gave 
ear  of  warmer  ardor  to  the  nightly  annals' of 

393 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

Mayfair  than  did  the  General  to  those  stories 
of  Peg's  victories.  Who  were  there  and  what 
they  did  and  said,  would  be  his  constant  curi- 
osity; and  indeed  he  carried  question-putting 
to  the  verge  of  what  stood  foppish. 

"  But  can't  you  see,  sir,"  demanded  the 
General,  when  I  told  him  how  his  heat  to 
trace  Peg's  skirts  through  every  dance,  or  learn 
the  calling  list  of  each  reception,  would  jostle 
one's  better  conception  of  him,  "can't  you  see 
that  with  the  world  and  the  law  as  made,  this 
is  the  trial  of  Peg's  standing,  and  freighted  of 
life  or  death  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  I,  full  bluntly;  "  and  if  you 
will  have  my  notion  then,  I  call  these  things 
mere  antic  matters  of  apeish  trick  and  chatter, 
not  worth  a  man's  attention." 

"  You  are  a  barbarian,"  retorted  the  Gen- 
eral, oracularly.  "  These  functions — these 
dinners  and  dances  and  receptions — are  trials 
by  jury  where  the  repute  of  folk,  peculiarly 
the  repute  of  women  folk,  is  passed  upon. 
The  verdict  in  her  favor  means  the  world 
and  all  for  Peg.  It  is  the  law." 

"  And  if  it  be,"  said  I,  "  it  is  but  a  bad  law 
and  a  cheap  law,  and  one  whereat  I  should  snap 
my  fingers." 

"And  yet,  sir,"  replied  the  General,  "won- 
drous highly  as  you  hold  yourself,  you  are  not 

394 


THE    SON    OF    THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

yet  grown  to  be  the  world.  It's  Peg's  happi- 
ness— a  matter  of  being  within  the  pale,  with- 
out which  she  would  feel  decided  against  and 
spurned.  And  remember  this,  sir,  while  you 
Nourish  with  your  defiances,  that  a  bad  law  is 
none  the  less  a  law,  with  penalty  in  nowise  to 
be  mollified  because  of  that  badness  at  which 
you  rail.  Wherefore  I  deem,  these  drawing- 
room  trinkets  of  a  first  weight  in  Peg's  con- 
cerns ;  I  shall  know  as  much  of  them  as  I  well 
may,  and  take  my  chance  of  falling  in  your 
graces." 

After  that,  and  somewhat  in  the  broader 
manner  of  a  jest,  I  would  each  day  lay  out  to 
the  General  whatever  of  polite  gaities  took 
place  the  night  before  ;  and  while  I  recited 
those  present,  and  what  they  did  or  said,  or 
failed  to  do  or  say,  and  particulary  when  such 
relation  told  for  Peg,  he  would  smoke,  and 
listen,  and  exult,  and  on  occasion  comment  like 
unto  any  grandmother  gossip  who  still  enjoys 
by  second  hands  those  scenes  which  long  ago 
her  years  taught  her  to  desert. 

These  exploits  of  waxed  floors  and  din- 
ner tables,  while  the  General  might  have  neither 
art  nor  lot  therein,  drew  me  along  with  them 
—for  all  I  loved  them  not — like  a  magnet. 
For  one  thing,  I  would  behold  how  Peg  fared ; 
and  then,  the  General  would  have  me  attend, 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

to  the   purpose    that  he  be  given  their  story. 

It  was  at  the  Russian's  I  was  called  on 
to  witness  the  iron  steadiness  of  Peg — albeit 
I  could  have  wished  the  Dutch  jade,  who 
offended,  a  man,  that  I  might  pinch  his  neck. 
You  must  know,  then,  how  the  Minister  from 
the  Netherlands  was  a  bloated  creature  of  beer 
and  butter-tub  proportions — a  Herr  Huygens, 
he  was ;  and  Frau  Huygens,  his  lady — save  the 
mark ! — was  as  dropsical  as  he.  The  latter 
ungentlewoman  would  he  a  waddling,  duck- 
built  cabbage  thing  of  fifty  years ;  and  of  no 
little  standing  for  a  money-prudence  and  strict 
economy,  since  while  as  rich  as  that  commerce 
of  gin  by  which  her  spouse  had  builded  up 
their  fortunes,  she  owned  celebration  for  but 
one  frock — a  most  fantastic  garment  for  color 
and  flounce  like  the  garb  of  a  clown  in  a 
kirmess. 

At  the  Krudener  dinner,  your  Frau  Huy- 
gens, whose  place  was  next  to  Peg's,  would  up 
and  leave  her  chair  immediately  she  was  seated  ; 
and  all  with  a  lofty  face  as  of  one  insulted,  and 
following  a  great  looking  of  Peg  over  through 
a  spying  glass. 

Spurred  by  this  rudeness,  Krudener  di- 
rected a  servant  to  remove  the  chair  and  plate 
and  table  furniture  of  that  place.  This  was 
swiftly  done ;  and  next,  to  show  his  own  feeling 
396 


THE    SON   OF   THE    SPANISH   BULL-FIGHTER 

of  the  insolence  offered  under  his  roof,  our  Rus- 
sian would  have  the  plate  and  the  rest,  includ- 
ing the  gilt  chair,  broken  to  pieces  in  one  cor- 
ner of  the  apartment  and  thrown  upon  the 
blaze  in  the  vast  fireplace. 

"  They  have  been  used  by  that  woman  of 
canals  and  gin-casks,"  explained  Krudener — 
under  his  exterior  of  quiet  diplomacy  and  with 
his  eye  on  Van  Buren,  I  could  tell  how  the 
Muscovite  was  in  a  towering  rage — "  and  I 
have  no  servant  so  low  he  would  now  eat  off 
that  plate  or  sit  in  that  chair.  Let  them  be 
destroyed,  and  with  them  the  recollection  of 
the  offence  to  our  fair  guest,  which  through- 
out my  life  I  shall  deplore."  With  this  Kru- 
dener bowed  deeply  to  Peg. 

"  Since  you  say  so  much,  Baron,"  re- 
sponded Peg,  "  I  am  driven  to  tell  you  that 
you  need  have  been  to  no  disturbance.  I 
should  have  remarked  that  person's  going  only 
for  the  relief  it  gave  to  be  free  of  the  near- 
ness of  one  so  gross." 

This  our  pretty  Peg  got  off  in  a  way  of 
relieved  superiority  that  was  invincible ;  she 
lost  nothing  through  the  episode,  but  would 
gain  ground  thereby  for  her  bearing. 

In  my  first  ill-humor  to  see  this  reasonless 
slight  put  upon  our  Peg,  I  looked  about  for 
the  rotund  Herr  Huygens,  with  a  view,  I  sup- 

397 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

pose — although  I  remember  no  clear  plan  in 
my  angry  head  at  the  time — to  have  his  opin- 
ion on  the  conduct  of  that  wife,  since  he  as 
her  lord  would  be  responsible.  He  was  not 
present,  nor  had  he  been;  it  was  as  well,  for  I 
might  have  forgotten  his  sacred  character  as  a 
Minister  and  said  or  done  that  which  should  be 
a  further  and  more  depressing  jolt  to  the  pro- 
prieties. 

The  General,  when  he  learned  of  the  busi- 
ness, was  even  warmer  than  myself.  He  was 
all  for  having  Van  Buren  give  Herr  Huygens 
his  walking  papers,  and  would  scarce  listen  to 
less.  The  "  good  little  secretary,"  with  Peg, 
herself,  to  aid,  won  him  from  his  mood  to  ban- 
ish the  Dutchman  and  that  offensive  Frau.  It 
bred  a  sharp  alarm  in  the  bosom  of  Herr 
Huygens,  for  he  would  as  soon  lay  down  his 
life  as  his  post  of  Minister,  over  the  proud 
eminence  whereof  he  gloated  much. 

An  incident  more  to  be  merry  with,  and 
one  carrying  within  itself  the  elements  of  fair 
reproof,  came  off  in  the  house  of  the  English. 

By  this  time  your  drawing-room  forces 
had  greatly  abandoned  the  Vice-President's 
wife  and  the  ladies  Berrien,  Branch  and  Ingham, 
to  follow  Peg.  Among  these,  and  glittering 
in  the  van,  shone  the  vainglorious  Pigeon- 
breast.  It  was  at  the  dance  of  the  Viscount 
398 


THE   SON   OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

Vaughn  that  Pigeon-breast,  after  deeply  con- 
sidering the  butter  on  his  bread,  made  obvi- 
ously and  obsequiously  up  to  Peg. 

In  his  earlier  advances  I  did  not  see  the 
tinsel  fellow  or  I  might  have  interposed  to  dash 
his  good  resolves ;  I  was  to  first  know  of  him 
in  these  bright  relations  of  friendship  for  our 
side  when  I  gained  a  glimpse  of  him  across  the 
wide  ball  room  where,  with  Peg's  hand  held 
high,  and  maintaining  a  mighty  respectful  dis- 
tance between  them  as  though  Peg  were  majesty 
itself,  he  led  her  through  one  of  those  slow 
dances — more,  indeed,  like  a  promenade  than 
any  dance — which  had  vogue  of  that  hour. 

I  waited  with  much  irritation  until  the 
dance  was  to  its  end  and  Peg  at  liberty.  I  re- 
membered, however,  in  her  defence,  that  Peg 
was  not  aware  of  Pigeon-breast  for  one  who 
had  sought  her  harm.  No  one  had  told  her  of 
that  splendid  long  speech  to  the  General  when 
Pigeon-breast  chose  to  represent  "  Mrs.  Cal- 
houn  and  the  ladies  of  Washington,"  which  lat- 
ter term,  under  the  scorching  fire  of  Peg's 
successes,  had  dwindled  to  a  sour  handful  scarce 
equal  to  the  task  of  filling  a  dinner  table  or 
constructing  a  quadrille. 

"Why  should  you  dance,"  said  I,  when 
now  I  had  gotten  Peg  by  herself  near  a  window, 
"why  should  you  dance  with  such  a  coxcomb?" 

399 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"You  mean,"  returned  Peg,  "to  tell  me 
that  he  is  no  friend.  As  for  that,  I've  known  him 
for  an  ill-wisher  and,  as  far  as  his  frail  strength 
went,  an  ill-doer,  from  the  beginning." 

"And  how  would  that  news  come  to  you?" 
said  I.  "  Has  the  rogue  said  anything?" 

"Not  so  fierce,  watch-dog,  not  so  fierce!" 
whispered  Peg.  "  Folk  present  are  not  cogni- 
zant of  your  mastiff  sort  and  might  wonder 
to  learn  of  it.  Wherefore,  go  quietly  about 
me  with  your  guardianship."  Peg  would  be 
amused  by  the  energy  of  my  distaste  of  Pigeon- 
breast.  "  The  '  rogue  '  has  said  nothing.  I 
knew  he  was  my  wrong-wisher  from  yourself." 

"Me?"  cried  I.  "And  how  should  you 
have  had  it  from  me  when  I  have  not  breathed 
of  the  popinjay's  existence  ?" 

"  How?  Why,  from  your  face,  where  I've 
been  long  wont  to  read  much  more  than  your 
tongue  has  ever  told." 

"  What  of  my  face,  then?" 

"And  I  have  wished  you  might  see  it! 
Whoever  it  was  to  approach  me,  I  had  but  to 
watch  your  brow.  Was  your  brow  frank,  open, 
friendly  :  he  who  came  was  a  friend.  Did  you 
lower  and  gloom  hatefully:  he  was  an  enemy 
who  rapped  at  the  gate.  Now  you  gave  this 
fop  the  look  of  a  fiend  when  one  day  he  would 
400 


THE   SON    OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

pass  us  in  the  square.     And  so  by  the  light,  or 
rather  the  twilight  of  your  frown,  I  read  him." 

"All  exceeding  clever,"  said  I,  half  made 
to  laugh  by  the  airy  fashion  wherein  Peg  would 
toss  this  off,  "  all  exceeding  clever.  But  it 
brings  me  with  interest  to  my  question,  why, 
then,  did  you  honor  him  with  a  dance?" 

"  For  the  same  reason,"  said  Peg,  with  a 
look  of  funny  malice,  "  that  an  Indian  scalps 
his  foe." 

"  Now  what  should  that  mean?" 

"Wait  and  see,  oh  watch-dog!" 

It  was  a  bit  later  when  Peg  was  again  by 
my  side. 

"  Do  you  know  why  I  am  back  with  you?" 
she  asked.  "Well,  aside  from  the  profound 
pleasure  of  your  company,  the  more  profound 
by  contrast  with  that  of  those  vapid  ones" — 
here  she  would  include  the  ball  room  males  with 
a  sweep  of  her  round  arm — "  I  thought  I  would 
scalp  my  enemy  before  your  eyes.  You  have 
a  violent  nature,  watch-dog,  and  I  reflected 
how  the  exhibition  might  bring  you  joy.  Since 
you  do  not  dance,  your  time  must  lie  on  your 
hands  like  iron ;  I  would  do  somewhat  to 
lighten  it." 

Before  I   could  ask  Peg  to  unravel  the  in- 
tent of  her  long  speech,  Pigeon-breast  was  push- 
ing valourously  our  way. 
401 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

"  He  comes  for  a  second  dance,"  said  Peg. 
"  See,  his  name  is  next  on  my  card." 

"  And  call  you  that  scalping  ?"  cried  I. 
"  At  that  rate,  every  man  in  the  room  will  com- 
pete for  your  cruelty  !  Scalping,  say  you  !  I 
wish  for  the  simple  humor  of  it,  a  Seminole 
might  hear  you.  ' 

The  truth  was  I  had  fallen  into  a  dudgeon 
with  Peg  for  her  notion  of  taking  a  trophy ; 
she  would  confer  heaven  on  this  Pigeon-breast 
and  call  it  "  scalping  !" 

"  I  believe,"  observed  Pigeon-breast,  with 
his  nose  fairly  to  the  floor,  so  deeply  would  he 
bow,  "I  believe  I  will  have  the  honor  of  another 
dance  " — here  another  bow  as  lowly  louted  as 
the  first. 

As  Pigeon-breast  resumed  the  perpendicu- 
lar, he  crooked  his  gallant  arm  invitingly  and 
would  lead  Peg  to  her  place. 

But  Peg  drew  back,  as  much  to  my  bewil- 
derment as  that  of  the  wonder-smitten  Pigeon- 
breast  himself,  and  with  a  manner  coldly  polite 
said: 

"There  is  a  mistake,  sir;  I  could  have 
promised  you  no  dance,  since  I  do  not  know 
you." 

"  Mistake  !"  gasped  Pigeon-breast. 

"  Mistake,"  repeated  Peg,  with,  if  any- 
thing, an  access  of  ice.  "  I  never  before  saw 


THE   SON   OF  THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

you ;  I  could  have  put  you  down  for  no  dance. 
One  does  not  dance  with  strangers."  Then  to 
me  :  u  Your  arm,  if  you  please." 

As  I  carried  Peg  away,  Pigeon-breast  was 
heard  to  inarticulately  moan  and  whine  like  a 
high  wind  in  a  keyhole.  Later  I  beheld  him 
desperately,  in  the  refreshment  room,  drinking 
strong  waters  with  both  hands  and  as  though 
he  had  a  fish  in  his  stomach. 

"  And  now,"  said  I  to  Peg,  as  we  moved 
away  from  the  crushed  Pigeon-breast,  "why 
were  you  so  bitter?  That  empty  fellow  was 
not  worth  so  much.  Besides,  you  have  shamed 
him  before  the  town ;  you  hurt  him  to  thf 
heart." 

"  Hurt  him  to  the  vanity,"  corrected  Peg. 
"  If  it  be  true  that  nothing  dries  more  quickly 
than  a  woman's  tear — and  it  is  true,  watch-dog 
—nothing  cures  more  quickly  than  the  hurt 
vanity  of  a  man.  That  dandy  will  anon  be  as 
gay  as  a  peacock.  However,  I  would  punish 
him.  I  have  made  him  an  Ishmael  of  the 
drawing-rooms ;  I  have  driven  him  forth  from 
us,  and  he  cannot  return  to  the  others  for 
his  apostasy  of  their  cause  is  known.  Did  I 
not  tell  you,  watch-dog,  I  was  a  revengeful 
woman?" 

Altogether,  I  might  have  wished  our  Peg 
had  taken  another  course  with  Pigeon-breast. 
403 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

Thus  to  publicly  drum  him  out  of  camp  was  a 
thought  too  hardy.  However,  Pigeon-breast 
had  wrought  for  what  he  received,  and  I  think, 
too,  Peg  was  more  moved  by  the  audacious 
fun  of  the  business  than  any  darkling  taste  to 
have  a  vengeance,  for  all  her  word. 

The  General,  I  am  minded,  was  of  my 
view;  it  was  the  frolic  of  the  thing  to  carry 
Peg  away. 

"  Peg  is  young,"  quoth  the  General,  ami- 
ably ;  "  our  Peg  is  young.  What  would  you 
have?  She  shall  be  older  one  day  and  more 
upon  dignity.  What  shall  more  bound  and 
frisk  and  play  than  your  scapegrace  kitten? 
And  yet  what  more  gravely  decorous  than  your 
cat?  By  Joshua's  horn!  on  the  whole,  I'm 
glad  your  Pigeon-breast  was  brought  up  with 
a  round  turn." 

It  was  one  afternoon  when  the  General 
came  to  me  with  a  request  that  I  seek  out 
Noah  at  the  Indian  Queen  and  confer  with 
him  over  the  merits  of  a  gentleman  who  lusted 
to  hold  a  certain  office. 

"  This  individual  comes  to  me  well  spoken 
of,"  said  the  General,  "  and  yet  I  would  know 
more  of  him,  and  that  from  one  who  has  no 
axe  to  be  grinded." 

While  I  made  ready  for  my  walk  to  the 
404 


THE    SON   OF   THE   SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

Indian  Queen,  the  General  unpouched  another 
piece  of  interesting  news. 

"  By  the  way,"  said  he,  "  our  Peg  has  set- 
tled on  April  as  a  time  for  that  dinner  and  ball. 
She  would  have  had  it  sooner;  but  she  does 
not  now  need  the  White  House  for  any  direct 
aid  to  her  arms.  She  will  save  it  for  the  close, 
and  make  the  affair  a  sort  of  celebration." 

"It  is  a  good  thought,"  said  I.  "It  is 
wiser,  since  she  has  won  her  way  with  what 
should  be  her  own  resources,  not  to  subtract 
from  that  success  by  any  full  blown  movement 
of  the  White  House  upon  the  scene.  Mean 
folk  would  say  she  could  not  have  come 
through  without  you  to  be  her  ally." 

"  And  that  is  my  notion,  too !"  coincided 
the  General.  "  Peg's  position  is  complete ;  the 
White  House  now  would  but  divide  her  glory. 
We  will  offer  her  our  East  Room  courtesies  in 
April,  and  let  it  be  for  an  old-time  Roman 
triumph  as  when  a  victor  returns  from  war. 
Peg  well  deserves  a  triumph ;  the  Vice-Presi- 
dential coterie  and  all  whom  it  might  control 
have  moved  heaven  and  earth  for  Peg's  dis- 
aster and  pulled  and  hauled  like  common 
sailor-folk  on  any  rope  to  do  her  harm." 

"  Does  not  April,"  said  I,  "  mark  an  un- 
heard-of span  for  your  social  season?     I  had 
thought  it  might  end  with  Lent." 
405 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"And  so  it  would,"  smiled  the  General, 
"  if  now  we  were  only  Federalists  like  Adams, 
and  remembered  the  Church  of  England  as  a 
guide.  This,  however,  is  a  Presbyterian  admin- 
istration ;  wherefore,  we  shall  abide  none  of 
your  Lents,  but  drink  and  dance  and  dine  as 
far  into  spring  flowers  as  we  will." 

"  Being  the  earliest  instance,"  added  I, 
"when  to  drink  and  to  dance  and  to  dine  were 
called  an  evidence  of  Calvinism." 

Noah  was  pen-employed  over  certain  wis- 
dom which  should  find  subsequent  exposition 
in  his  paper. 

"  There  are  large  money  influences,"  re- 
marked Noah,  thoughtfully,  when  we  had  talked 
a  moment,  "which  have  grown  alluringly  friendly 
about  my  associate,  Watson  Webb.  They  are 
offering  a  loan  to  our  paper  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  You  know" — this  with  his  satirical 
air — "how  papers  are  ever  in  want  of  a  loan. 
These  money  folk  bank  on  that  to  win  us;  per- 
haps, too,  they  find  hope  in  my  being  a  Jew." 

"And  what  would  your  associate  do?"  I 
asked. 

"  To  be  frank,"  returned  Noah,  "  he  grants 
admiring  ear  to  this  song  of  siren  money.  I 
think  we  shall  part  company — Webb  and  I." 

"  And  yet,"  said  I,  with  a  bent  for  banter, 
"  you  are  ever  in  one  kind  or  another  laying 
406 


THE   SON    OF   THE    SPANISH   BULL-FIGHTER 

emphasis  on  your  Jewish  readiness  for  gold. 
Now  you  see  it  is  the  Jew  who  can  not  be  moved, 
while  our  Gentile,  with  an  eye  to  the  yellow 
chance,  would  not  be  found  so  sentimental." 

"  For  all  that,"  remarked  Noah,  "the  Jew 
is  a  profound  money  hunter.  It  is  but  natural 
he  should  be.  That  cupidity,  or,  if  you  prefer, 
that  gold-greed,  has  been  through  centuries  de- 
veloped as  his  one  hope  for  safety.  In  the  op- 
pressions which  have  borne  upon  him,  and 
which  in  all  countries  save  this  still  bear  him 
down,  your  Jew  has  found  in  money  his  last 
cave  of  retreat.  He  might  bulwark  himself 
with  riches.  With  others,  gold  would  mean  lux- 
ury ;  with  the  Jew,  it  stood  for  life  itself,  and 
to  go  wanting  it  was  to  be  tooth  and  nail  about 
the  digging  of  his  own  grave." 

"  And  it  is  your  theory,  then,"  said  I, 
"that  the  great  need  for  gold  which  for  ages 
was  to  stare  the  Jew  in  the  face,  became  the 
seed  of  that  genius,  to  gather  which  now  the 
race  is  heir  to  ?" 

11  Without  question,"  said  Noah.  "  More  ; 
since  the  Jew  has  been  safe  of  his  goods  and 
his  blood  in  this  land  of  ours,  and  the  rowels 
of  that  great  need  no  longer  lance  the  flanks 
of  effort  and  set  it  to  the  leap,  we  rear  a  kind 
of  Jew  who  owns  no  mighty  care  for  money. 
I  will  find  you  Jews  in  our  midst  who  can  still  be 
407 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

hawks  to  swoop,  but  who  have  no  hold  to  keep. 
They  will  spend  you  their  riches  or  give  them 
away  like  water.  We  shall  yet  rear  an  Ameri- 
can Jew  who  has  no  skill  to  get  money.  Still, 
going  back  to  that  first  thought — for  it  is  wor- 
rying my  soul  like  a  dog — of  those  money  in- 
fluences busy  with  the  enlistment  of  Webb,  I 
am  free  to  say  that  even  in  his  worst  hour  your 
Jew  would  never  take  a  bribe.  He  would  sell 
neither  his  friend  nor  his  principle  ;  those  were 
never  Jewish  ways  of  money-finding." 

"  Your  Jew  makes  a  stout  patriot,"  said  I. 
"I  could  want  no  better  American  than  a  Jew." 

"  Why,  then,"  responded  Noah,  "  there  be 
none  to  whom  America  means  so  much.  You, 
being  of  the  strain  of  Saxon-Dane,  would  have 
justice  in  England,  welcome  in  Russia,  friend- 
ship in  France.  What  would  your  Jew  meet? 
Your  Jew  loves  America  because  he  loves  him- 
self ;  he  is  a  patriot  since  he  is  a  Jew." 

"  And  yet,"  I  protested,  "  it  is  no  question 
of  cool  selfishness  with  your  Jew.  He  is  as 
spontaneously  the  patriot  as  any  other.  Take 
Judah  Touro :  whose  money  or  whose  blood 
was  more  at  the  beck  of  his  country  that  Janu- 
ary day  at  New  Orleans  ?" 

"  Why,    yes,    that    is    true,"    said    Noah. 
"  But  you  should  reflect :  patriotism,  like  every 
other  emotion — if  it  be  a  mother's  love  for  her 
408 


THE    SON   OF   THE   SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

child — has  ever  its  first  feet  in  selfishness.  That 
would  be  the  tale  of  Jew  or  Gentile  the  wide 
world  round.  Selfishness  seems  but  a  rough, 
unworthy  root,  but  from  it  have  flowered  art, 
poetry,  science,  or  what  you  will.  The  lineage 
of  each  sentiment  of  beauty,  whether  it  be  the 
tenderest  charity  or  that  self-sacrifice  that  lays 
down  its  life,  begins  with  selfishness — that 
mighty  cornerstone  of  the  world." 

"  Beware  of  metaphysics,"  said  I.  "  That, 
at  least,  would  be  our  matter-of-fact  General's 
caution." 

"Who?  the  President?"  Noah  laughed. 
"  I  will  let  you  in  with  a  secret.  There  is  only 
one  to  be  more  the  sentimentalist  than  your 
4  matter-of-fact  General,'  and  that,  my  friend,  is 
yourself.  However,  keeping  from  the  personal, 
I  would  still  stand  firm  to  it  that  selfishness 
is  the  beginning  of  the  virtues.  Those  better 
expressions,  charity  and  love,  come  by  its  cul- 
tivation just  as  the  generous  apple  has  for  its 
forebear  that  bitter,  thorny,  sour  creature,  the 
wild  crab.  Now,  your  Jew  has  been  vastly  cul- 
tivated ;" — here  came  Noah's  look  of  satire — 
"  he  has  been  ploughed  by  adversity  and  har- 
rowed of  oppression.  Thus  farmed,  your  Jew 
will  produce  those  Judah  Touros  you  tell  of. 
There  were  mates  for  Touro  throughout  our 
years  of  revolution.  There  dwelt  but  seven 
409 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

hundred  families  of  Jews  in  this  land  when 
Concord  and  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  fell 
forth.  From  Lexington  until  Cornwallis,  those 
Jews  were  busy  with  their  ducats  and  their 
blood  for  freedom.  They  gave  millions.  Old 
Haym  Salomon  alone  gave  six  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  He  was  the  richest  of  his  day; 
he  died  copper  poor  to  the  obolary  point  of 
groats  and  farthings.  At  his  end  he  said  :  '  I 
die  broken  and  in  the  talons  of  want ;  but  I 
die  happy  since  I  have  lived  to  see  civil  and 
religious  liberty  established  on  this  soil.' ' 

Rivera,  broad  of  shoulder,  mild  of  eye, 
here  drew  near  and  made  a  slight  motion,  as 
one  who  points  with  his  thumb,  towards  the 
tap-room  of  the  tavern.  Noah  would  seem  in- 
stantly to  understand  his  wordless  satellite. 

"  Come,"  said  Noah,  eagerly,  "I  can  show 
you  those  Catron  thugs  I  warned  you  against. 
It  may  serve  you  to  know  their  faces." 

"  1  had  forgotten  to  ask,"  I  returned. 
"  Has  any  of  them  gone  about  to  molest  you  ? 
I  see  you  still  safe." 

"  It  is  because  I  am  looked  on,"  returned 
Noah,  lightly,  "  as  a  Jew  most  perilous.  Those 
Catron  five  minutes  at  Gadsby's  did  me  good 
service.  Also,  since  I  love  quiet,  I  would  hav^e 
gossip  give  wings  to  it  how  I  carry  a  knife. 
410 


THE    SON    OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

The  truth  is,  these  caitiff  folk  mistrust  me  as 
a  trap  of  death." 

There  was  a  rude  group  gathered  about  a 
table  in  the  bar.  The  members  were  drinking 
rum  from  tin  measures,  and  their  vivid  noses 
and  features  much  aflame  would  not  have  said 
the  habit  was  one  lately  taken  up. 

"  Those  be  our  friends,"  whispered  Noah. 
"That  animal  with  the  shoulders  of  a  buffalo, 
the  iron  jaw,  and  no  forehead  to  speak  of,  is  a 
prize-fighter  of  renown.  He  was  brought  over 
to  be  a  counter-weight  for  Rivera.  I  would 
wager,  should  they  come  together,  that  my 
man  beats  him  to  a  pumice." 

The  light  in  Noah's  eyes  showed  no  sloth 
of  appetite  for  such  a  battle. 

The  rogues  about  the  table  were  made 
uneasy  by  our  presence.  We  looked  them  up 
and  down  at  no  little  length,  Noah  with  an  eye 
of  rawest  insolence,  enough  of  itself  to  draw 
resentment  from  an  image.  Noah  called  Rivera 
from  where  he  lounged  against  the  doorpost 
and  held  whispered  converse  with  him  touch- 
ing the  fellows,  and  all  in  a  most  apparent  way 
of  insult.  But  beyond  a  wrathful  growl  one 
might  not  lure  them  ;  they  turned  their  shifty, 
evil  eyes  away,  and  hastily  gulping  the  rum, 
shuffled  from  the  place. 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  If  those  ruffians  are  come  to  town  for  a 
motive  of  trouble,"  said  I,  "why  do  not  they 
go  upon  their  mission?  They  have  been  weeks 
here.  Has  this  Catron  so  much  money  to 
waste  ?" 

"  Doubtless  Catron  has  money  enough," 
replied  Noah.  "  Like  yourself,  however,  I  can 
not  find  reason  for  this  stage-wait  in  the  trag- 
edy. I  have  tempted  them  to  a  rupture  with 
my  eye  a  score  of  times,  but  their  conduct  was 
always  what  you  saw." 

Noah  went  with  me  to  the  General,  to  re- 
ply to  the  latter's  interest  concerning  the  am- 
bitious one. 

"He  is  wise  and  brave  and  true,"  said 
Noah;  "  that  is  the  worst  I  know  of  him." 

"  And  that  should  be  enough,"  said  the 
General,  decisively.  "What  more  may  one 
want  than  '  wise  and  brave  and  true?' ' 

"  Then  you  care  only  for  the  man,"  said 
I,  "  and  ask  nothing  of  his  principles  of  poli- 
tics?" 

"  Added  to  those  cardinals,"  laughed  the 
General,  "  of  '  wise  and  brave  and  true,'  one 
would  need  but  the  other  virtue  of  being  my 
friend.  When  you  say  '  principles  of  politics,' 
Major,  I  should  know  what  you  mean.  Still, 
with  a  now  and  then  Calhoun  exception,  I  am 
free  to  say  I  care  only  for  your  man  and  noth- 
412 


THE   SON    OF    THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

ing  for  a  measure.  If  it  were  an  election,  now,  I 
should  vote  for  a  good  man  on  a  bad  platform 
rather  than  a  bad  man  on  a  good  platform." 

"And  why?"  asked  Noah.  "For  myself, 
I  am  not  so  sure." 

"  You  will  turn  sure,"  replied  the  Gen- 
eral, "  if  you  but  pause  and  recall  your  own 
experience.  Measures  are  like  batteries  aboard 
ship.  It  is  ever  the  man  behind  the  measure, 
as  it  is  the  man  behind  the  gun.  If  he  be 
'wise  and  brave  and  true,'  good.  If  he 
be  otherwise  ; — why,  hang  him  and  have  you 
another  man." 

As  I  was  returning  alone  to  my  workshop, 
I  overheard  the  voices  of  Peg  and  Jim  within 
the  room. 

"An'  so,  Miss  Peg,"  Jim  was  saying,  "  as 
soon  as  ever  your  mammy  gives  Jim  d'message 
an'  that  mouthful  of  whiskey,  Jim  shore 
lights  out  for  you.  Honey,  Jim  comes  that 
fas',  Jim  does,  he  jes'  natcherally  leaves  things 
on  both  sides  of  d'road.  Your  mammy's 
plumb  sick,  an'  thar  aint  no  sort  o'  doubt  of 
it.  Plumbago  is  what  Jim  allows  it  is." 

"  My  mother  is  ill,"  said  Peg,  when  I  came 
in.     "  I  sent  your  Jim  down  to  get  word  from 
her.     She  wants  me,  and  I  would   ask  you  to 
go  with  me  to  her  if  I  dared." 
4*3 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

"That  should  call  for  no  desperate  cour- 
age," said  I. 

The  deep  snows  had  been  melting  for 
many  days,  and,  while  the  ground  was  now 
quite  bare,  it  lay  wet  as  a  sponge,  and  the 
roads  not  to  be  thought  of  for  horses.  Peg's 
mother,  however,  lived  but  a  little  mile  distant, 
and  our  way  would  lie  through  woodland  for 
the  most,  with  paths  to  wind  in  and  out  among 
the  trees.  These  walks,  being  grassy,  would 
do  well  enough  for  folk  afoot. 

"  We  must  walk,"  said  Peg,  "  and  since 
that  be  the  order,  I  must  go  back  for  stronger 
boots  to  fend  against  this  wet." 

When  Peg  returned  from  her  own  home 
and  we  would  be  setting  forth,  it  was  six  years 
off  her  age  to  merely  see  her.  For  what  mud 
and  water  we  might  meet,  Peg  had  donned 
thick-soled,  high-laced  boots,  and  with  these, 
and  skirts  cut  short  to  match  her  boots,  Peg 
appeared  not  an  hour  older  than  sixteen. 

"  You  look  like  a  schoolgirl,"  said  I,  in 
comment.  "  You  will  be  now  more  than  ever 
the  child  with  me." 

"  'Tis  a  good  uniform  to  walk  in,"  said 
Peg,  "  and  to  balk  mire  and  water." 

Peg's  mother  was  in  no  strait  of  weak- 
ened health  more  than  stood  proper  with  her 
days.  But  she  was  grown  peevish  and  with 


THE    SON    OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

nerves  on  edge  to  see  her  daughter;  for  since 
rout  and  dinner  and  reception  made  such  claim 
on  Peg,  she  had  not  visited  the  good  old  lady 
as  often  as  was  her  wont. 

And  now  when  we  were  there,  the  old 
mother  would  hear  no  soon  word  for  our  de- 
parture;  we  must  stay  to  supper;  Peg  should 
cook  for  us,  she  said. 

It  was  not  without  surprise  that  I  observed 
how  this  command  to  turn  herself  a  cook 
would  fit  with  Peg's  temper  like  a  glove.  In 
the  first,  Peg  hung  upon  uncertainties ;  the 
paths  were  bad,  there  were  mire  and  pool. 
But  when  told  that  she  should  cook  for  me, 
her  face  brightened  and  she  was  instantly 
moved  to  recall  that  a  great  moon  would  shine 
and  so  put  those  night-dangers  of  pool  and 
mire  to  rest. 

So  patent  stood  Peg's  satisfaction  in  her 
new  duties  that,  as  she  would  heap  and  heap 
again  my  plate — scarce  eating  a  morsel  her- 
self— I  was  driven  to  ask  reason. 

"And  you  don't  know?"  said  Peg,  paus- 
ing with  a  new-baked  tin  of  light-bread  in  her 
little  hands — these  latter  white  with  flour.  "  It 
is  because  this  is  the  first  natural  woman  thing 
I've  done  for  months.  You  may  be  very  sure, 
watch-dog,  whenever  you  see  me  bowing  and 
scraping  at  a  reception,  or  dismissing  some 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

Pigeon-breast  from  my  royal  presence  at  a 
ball,  that  I  would  give  the  stockings  off  my 
feet  to  be  busy  about  a  fireplace  instead,  and 
cooking  bread  and  meat  for  you.  You  see,  I 
am  so  much  more  the  woman  than  the  lady. 
There  is  my  defect.  " 

"And  was  it  that,"  said  I,  attacking  a 
second  steak  with  the  fury  of  a  farm-hand, 
while  Peg  glowed  to  see  me  dispatch  it,  "  was 
it  that  to  teach  you  to  warn  me  I  must  be  a 
man  rather  than  a  gentleman  when  I  dealt  with 
you?" 

"  Now  I  shouldn't  wonder,"  replied  Peg, 
going  for  more  coffee. 

This  kitchen  mood  of  Peg's — and  some- 
how I  liked  it  as  much  as  ever  she  did — and 
her  word  for  it  how  she  preferred  cookery  to 
balls,  set  me  to  put  questions  as  we  twined 
along  our  path  among  the  trees  on  homeward 
journey.  The  night,  as  Peg  foretold  when  she 
so  favored  supper-getting,  was  full  of  a  white 
radiance  that  one  might  read  print  by,  for  the 
air  was  as  clear  as  glass  and  the  moon  both 
big  and  round. 

"  You  were  speaking  as  one  weary,"  said 

I,  "  of  dance  and  reception,  and  declared  how 

you  would  sooner  cook.     Now  that  puts  me  in  a 

fog ;  I  should  have  supposed  you  the  happiest, 

416 


THE   SON   OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

as  you  should  be  the  proudest,  woman  in  the 
world." 

"  I  said  I  would  sooner  cook  for  you," 
said  Peg.  "  You  are  uncouth  enough  to  forget 
that  part.  Or  perhaps,  now  it  was  your  tim- 
idity. I  am  proud  enough,  doubtless;  but 
why,  watch-dog,  should  you  think  me  happy?  " 

"  Is  it  not  reason  enough,"  returned  I,  u  that 
you  have  stifled  your  enemies,  and  stand  on  the 
last  summit  of  our  society?" 

"I  am  happy  only  as  it  makes  my  friends 
happy,"  returned  Peg  ;  "  the  good  General  and 
yourself.  I  would  not,  for  my  own  part,  waste 
one  moment  on  it." 

"  I  can  not  understand,"  said  I.  "  That  I 
should  love  nothing  of  drawing-rooms  does 
not  amaze  me  ;  the  day  is  on  in  middle  life  with 
me  and  I've  seen  too  much  of  grass  and  sky 
to  now  care  for  floors  and  frescoes.  But  for  a 
woman  : — I  should  have  said  her  joy  would  be 
there." 

"  Watch-dog,  I  am  too  much  the  woman," 
said  Peg;  "or,  since  you  may  better  understand, 
I'm  too  much  the  savage.  I've  climbed  the  so- 
cial mountain.  I  stand  on  its  summit ;  there  is 
nowhere  higher.  And  yet  what  will  it  all 
mean?" 

"What  will  it  not  mean?"  I  asked. 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

"Watch-dog,  I'll  tell  you  what  it  will  not 
mean."  Peg  spoke  in  a  tone  of  tired  earnest- 
ness. "  It  will  not  mean  sympathy  or  love  or 
trust.  Society,  as  we've  agreed,  is  like  a  moun- 
tain. And  like  a  mountain,  you  find  less  and 
less  of  vegetation  as  you  climb — fewer  of  the 
green,  good  virtues  that  stand  so  thickly  rank 
in  the  poor  valleys  below.  As  you  climb,  it 
would  turn  ever  barer  and  colder;  and  at  the 
last  no  virtues — nothing  but  lichens  and  livid 
mosses.  We  are  at  the  summit,  watch-dog. 
And  now  what  find  we  other  than  the  dead  cold 
snow?  You  have  told  me  I  stand  on  the  so- 
cial summit ;  you  see  I  keep  repeating.  Do 
you  know  now  what  it  is  in  my  heart  to  do  ? 
There  lies  no  peril  of  a  slip ;  I  have  too  much 
the  sure  foot  of  the  ibex.  Do  you  know  what 
I  am  moved  to  do  ? — me  on  my  high  snow  so- 
cial peak?  Why,  then,  dash  myself  into  that 
common  valley  far  below." 

"  Now,  that  is  not  our  Peg  who  speaks," 
cried  I,  not  a  trifle  put  about  by  Peg's  Alpine 
parables.  "  It  is  the  talk  of  a  tongue  and  means 
mere  wildness." 

"And  that  is  it,  watch-dog,"  returned  Peg. 
in  a  way  of  mourning.  "  I  am  not  tame ;  I  am 
like  the  wild  things  that  will  not  bear  a  cage. 
Now  here  ;  see  how  strange  I  am.  I  do  not 
like  women ;  I  will  not  trust  one  with  a  word : 
41* 


THE   SON    OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

I  must  watch  myself  to  treat  them  with  a  fair 
face.  Then  I  am  all  to  talk  and  go  about  with 
men.  I  should  have  been  born  one  of  those 
Indian  girls  of  whom  you  told  me.  A  campfire 
and  a  petticoat  of  buckskin,  a  wigwam  and  a 
husband — big  and  broad  like  you,  watch-dog 
—to  fight  and  to  hunt  for  me ;  that  would  be 
my  dream." 

There  arose  a  rough  laugh,  and  if  my  ears 
were  true,  a  rum-sodden  laugh.  I  turned  my 
head,  and  there,  a  hundred  yards  to  our  rear, 
came  rolling  and  stumbling  the  drunken  crew 
whom  Noah  had  been  at  pains  to  show  me  in 
the  Indian  Queen.  Over  my  shoulder  I  watched 
them  for  a  moment.  They  were  in  sottish  glee, 
and  would  shout,  and  now  and  then  troll  a  bar 
or  two  of  some  pot-house  ballad. 

My  nature  was  on  watch  in  a  moment ;  I 
suspected  how  these  ruffians  would  be  after  us. 
We  were  in  a  lonely  strip  of  trees,  and  no  folk 
near  the  spot  but  just  ourselves — a  safe  theatre 
for  villainy.  1  counted  our  roaring  drunkards ; 
there  were  eleven,  and  among  them  I  could  pick 
out  the  yard-wide  shoulders  of  that  gladiator  to 
whom  Noah  had  pointed. 

Peg,  as  well  as  I,  could  see  these  creatures 

coming ;  but   then   she  had  not  my  news,  and 

would  only  know  them  for  roysterers  returning 

from  some  drinking  bout.  I  glanced  at  Peg ;  her 

419 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

face  was  bright  and  free,  and  for  all  her  late 
lamentations  over  society  and  its  dead  cold 
wastes  of  proper  snow,  mighty  wide  awake  and 
vivacious.  I  never  beheld  her  more  brisk;  in 
the  white  moonlight  her  picture  shone  out  as 
clear  as  day. 

Peg  was  on  my  right  arm.  I  began  to  go 
more  slowly  so  that  those  who  followed  should 
overtake  us,  and  to  push  a  little  off  the  path  to 
the  right,  for  I  would  have  Peg  out  of  the 
midst  of  them  when  trouble  fell. 

As  I  would  loiter  and  go  with  a  slower  foot, 
the  eleven  behind  quickened  their  step.  They 
came  on,  roaring  and  jesting  among  themselves ; 
not  together,  but  by  twos  and  threes,  and 
straggling  along  the  path  like  geese.  I  think  it 
was  their  plan  to  push  ahead  of  Peg  and  me 
and  bar  our  way  ;  for  they  went  lumbering  and 
lurching  by,  making  a  rude  joke  to  toss  from 
tongue  to  tongue,  but  no  one  to  so  much  as 
look  on  us  direct  until  the  last  one  came  up 
He  would  be  lagging  behind  for  a  purpose,  too, 
since  he  was  gone  on  no  more  than  a  yard  ahead 
of  Peg  and  myself  when  he  sings  out  to  his 
fellows  with  an  oath : 

"  D'ye  see  whom  we  have  here  ?  Why, 
here  is  our  big  lover  and  his  light  o'  love — no 
less!" 

420 


THE    SON    OF   THE    SPANISH    BULL-FIGHTER 

With  that,  stepping  before  Peg,  I  seized  the 
scoundrel  with  my  left  hand.  It  was  his  arm 
above  the  elbow  I  took  hold  on,  and  a  soft 
snick  like  a  snapping  of  the  clay  stem  of  a 
pipe,  and  the  grotesque  way  in  which  the  hand 
dangled,  palm  outward,  showed  me  how  I  had 
broken  the  bone. 

The  creature's  scream  brought  the  others 
to  his  rescue.  That  was  no  loss,  for  it  would 
have  been  their  plan  from  the  first  to  return 
and  fall  upon  me.  As  they  came  on  in  a  blunder- 
ing file,  whirling  forth  oaths,  I  took  the  one  in 
my  hand  with  a  grip  about  his  middle.  Heav- 
ing him  over  my  head,  I  dashed  him  at  the 
others  as  they  drew  near.  The  villian  would  do 
beautifully  as  a  projectile,  too,  for  he  mowed 
down  three  like  a  chain-shot,  his  boot  making 
a  fine  gash  in  the  face  of  one  of  them. 

O 

On  the  point  of  going  forward  to  meet  the 
others,  I  was  stayed  by  a  shout,  loud  and  mu- 
sical, yet  much  like  the  muffled  roar  of  some 
deep-lunged  animal.  Then  came  one  from  the 
the  rear  with  the  speed  of  an  arrow  at  top  flight. 
In  the  moonlight  I  could  tell  him  for  Rivera 
the  son  of  that  Spanish  bull-fighter,  running  like 
a  stag.  He  flashed  by  me;  and  the  next  mo- 
ment he  struck  one  of  the  roughs  with  his  fist. 
It  was  a  hammer-like  blow,  and  that  one  who 
would  stop  it  fell  with  the  crash  of  a  tree. 
421 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  FEDERAL  UNION  :    IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED. 

Doubtless,  since  my  very  palms  itched  to 
be  about  that  employment,  I  would  have  had 
my  hands  on  others  of  the  rogue  crew,  but  I 
was  granted  no  chance.  Rivera  poured  him- 
self against  the  scoundrels  like  a  torrent. 
Quick,  catlike,  springing  in  and  out,  he  smote 
upon  two  of  them  as  with  a  poleaxe,  and  they 
went  to  the  grass  like  folk  of  wood.  The 
sound  of  the  blows  came  to  my  ears  as  clearly 
as  the  click  of  balls  in  a  billiard  game.  Be- 
holding the  thunderbolt  work  of  Rivera,  the 
others,  losing  courage,  and  with  a  concert  of 
curses  and  growling  cries,  turned  tail  and  ran. 

There  was  one,  however,  of  those  who 
were  yet  upon  their  ignoble  feet,  to  save  him- 
self this  disgrace.  When  the  rest  ran  off  cry- 
ing among  the  trees,  this  man  would  tarry; 
he  was  that  wide-shouldered  fighting  man 
who  was  thought  to  match  Rivera.  For  rea- 
sons of  his  own,  and  perhaps  they  were  in  a 
rude  sort  chivalric  and  to  his  credit,  this  fellow 
had  not  rushed  upon  us  with  the  others,  but 
stood  at  some  distance  looking  on,  arms  folded 
422 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

across  his  chest.  Now,  when  all  were  down  or 
vanished  in  the  dark,  he,  with  arms  still  folded, 
came  slowly  towards  Rivera. 

"  Volks  tells  me,  lad,"  said  the  fighting 
man  as,  arms  still  at  peace,  he  paused  within  a 
few  yards  of  Rivera,  who  would  be  coolly  wait- 
ing for  him,  "  volks  tells  me  as  'ow  you  be 
summat  of  a  boxer;  and  vor  a  certainty,  you 
does  make  beef  of  them  coves  in  a  vorkmanlike 
vay — you  does,  upon  my  davy !  But  now,  d'ye 
see,  you  settles  vith  me — me,  Jim  Burns  of 
W'itechapel." 

"Assuredly!"  returned  Rivera,  and  his 
deep  tones,  like  the  roll  of  an  organ,  would 
carry  the  impression  of  one  in  wondrous  good 
humor,  "  I  shall  be  most  pleased  to  settle  with 
you.  See,  you  may  take  your  time  ;  there  is  no 
hurry." 

The  other,  who  seemed  to  have  faith  in 
the  leisurely  mood  of  Rivera,  softly  doffed 
coat  and  waistcoat,  and  stood  in  his  shirt  of 
gray  cloth,  trousers  and  shoes.  Rivera  simi- 
larly prepared  himself ;  he  would  meet  his 
enemy  in  the  same  light  costume. 

"  Best  to  turn  up  your  trowsers,  lad," 
advised  the  fighting  man,  "  as  I  does.  They 
may  '  inder  your  veet,  else,  in  steppin'." 

When  these  improvements  had  been. 
423 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

wrought,  the  fighting  man's  thought  would 
double  anew  corner. 

"  And  yet,"  he  remarked,  complainingly, 
"  w'at's  the  bloomin'  use?  'Ere's  them  coves 
all  run  away" — pointing  to  the  last  of  the  trio 
whom  Rivera  had  beaten  down,  as  that  un- 
worthy staggered  to  his  feet  and  lurched  off 
into  the  darkness — "  an'  no  purse  nor  nothink 
to  vight  for.  I  sees  no  use,  lad,  in  our  puttin' 
hup  our  'ands."  This  last  in  a  grieved  tone. 

"  But  you  must  fight,"  remonstrated  Ri- 
vera, in  a  sharp,  eager  fashion.  "  You  came  to 
this  town  to  beat  me.  Will  you  now  let  your- 
self be  stopped  and  never  a  blow?  Are  you 
afraid?" 

"  Me,  afeerd?"  retorted  the  fighting  man, 
fiercely,  his  little  eyes  like  sparks.  "  W'y, 
lad  1  th'  cove  doant  stan'  in  leather  as  I'm 
afeerd  on.  Me,  a  fourteen  stoner,  leery  ?  An' 
of  only  one?  Well,  I  likes  that!"  The  dis- 
gust of  the  fighting  man  was  unmistakable. 

It  was  a  queer  position,  this  waiting  to  be 
spectator  of  a  fist  duel  between  these  game-some 
ones,  but  I  did  not  feel  free  to  leave  until  the 
thing  should  end.  When  the  fighting  man, 
arms  crossed,  came  pacifically  up,  I  would  have 
been  for  going  forward  to  lay  hold  on  him, 
but  Rivera,  with  a  manner  like  a  prayer  and  as 
424 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

he  who  seeks  a  favor  for  his  soul,  besought  me 
to  withstay  my  hand. 

"Don't,"  pleaded  Rivera,  but  never  taking 
his  gaze  from  the  man,  "  don't;  he  is  mine." 

With  that,  giving  over  whatever  of  right 
I  may  have  owned  to  the  fellow,  I  went  to  Peg 
where  she  stood  on  a  little  knoll  among  the 
deeper  shadows  of  the  woods. 

"  I  should  take  you  to  safety  at  once," 
said  I,  in  explanation  of  my  loitering  lack  of 
expedition,  "  but  I  would  see  Rivera  through 
this." 

"  I  do  not  want  to  go,"  replied  Peg,  gaz- 
ing the  while  as  with  a  kind  of  fascination. 

Peg's  face  wore  a  flush  of  excitement;  this 
I  could  tell  even  in  the  shadows,  and  her  words 
had  a  great  ring  of  interest.  I  did  not  remark 
on  the  strangeness  of  it,  nor  frame  a  rebuke 
for  that  she  should  love  to  look  on  while  gladi- 
ators fought.  I,  myself, — for  I  confess  to  a 
mighty  lust  of  strife, — was  hot  to  see  what 
might  follow,  and  it  came  to  me  as  quite  the 
thing  that  Peg  should  share  my  feeling.  It  was 
the  savage  in  her  blood,  as  the  General  would 
have  said ;  but,  a  trifle  strung  of  the  fracas  and 
with  the  wolf  in  me  at  full  stretch,  I  felt  no 
amazement,  but  only  sympathy  for  Peg's  senti- 
ment. 

425 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

As  Peg  and  I  stood  considering  the  others 
in  their  words  and  motions,  Rivera  pointed  to 
a  level,  glady  spot  where  no  trees  grew  and  the 
moonlight  came  down  in  a  white  flood. 

"That  should  be  a  fine  place,"  said  Rivera 
to  the  fighting  man,  "  for  us  to  try  each  other." 

"  It  does  look  a  tidy  bit  of  grass,"  assented 
the  fighting  man. 

As  the  two  walked  forward  to  this  turfy 
spot  of  fairness  it  brought  them  nearer  to  Peg 
and  myself,  and  squarely  under  our  eyes.  It 
was  as  though  they  set  a  stage,  and  would  pro- 
duce their  drama  of  blows  for  us  and  in  such 
wise  that  we  should  not  lose  the  least  of  it. 

As  the  pair  moved  to  the  selected  place, 
that  moaning  one  whose  arm  I  had  broken,  and 
who,  when  the  rest  had  fled,  still  lay  in  a  fit  of 
fainting,  so  far  recovered  as  to  sit  weakly  up. 
But  he  could  not  yet  walk,  being  shaken  and 
dizzy  mayhap,  and  so  he,  too,  would  be  a 
looker  on,  albeit  I  do  not  think  he  was  to  see 
much,  being  taken  with  his  own  woes  and 
groaning  over  them. 

"Wat  a  come-down  is  this  I"  exclaimed 
the  fighting  man,  as  he  moved  into  the  center 
of  the  ground,  "  me,  who  should  be  champion, 
vighting  by  moonlight  in  a  vorest  vith  a  mad 
Yankee!  Wat  a  tale  to  tell  in  Witechapel!" 

"I'm  not  a  Yankee,"  said  Rivera,  as  if  for 
426 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

the   other's   consolation,    I   thought,    "  I'm    an 
Irish-Jew." 

"An  Irish-Jew!"  returned  the  other,  with 
a  note  of  admiration.  u  Now  that's  better, 
lad ;  Irish  on  Jew  makes  a  bitter  cross  for  the 
ring.  But  all  the  same,  it's  a  shame  vor  me  to 
be  'ere  millin'  by  moonlight  in  voreign  parts, 
an'  never  no  purse  nor  ropes  nor  nothink,  an' 
no  'igh  toby  blokes  to  referee  or  even  'old  a 
vatch.  An'  me,  mind  you,  as  should  be  cham- 
pion." 

"Why  do  you  say  that?"  asked  Rivera,  in 
a  hunger  of  boyish  curiosity  to  know  how  hon- 
orable the  conquest  was  he  went  about.  "  Of 
what  should  you  be  champion?" 

"  Hengland,  lad,  w'at  else  !"  said  the  other. 
"It's  all  on  account  of  an  accident  that  I  beant. 
I  vights  vith  Big  Tom  Brown  of  Bridgenorth, 
I  does ;  an'  Tom,  'e  naps  it  on  the  bugle  so 
'ard  'e's  all  vor  bleedin'  to  death.  An'  vith 
that,  the  beaks  is  vor  puttin'  me  on  a  transport 
to  go  to  New  South  Wales,  when  I  moseys 
down  to  Bristol  an'  goes  aboard  ship  an'  comes 
over  'ere.  If  I  could  'ave  stayed  at  'ome,  I'd 
a-beat  Bendigo  by  now,  an'  been  the  champion 
'stead  of  'e.  'Owever,  volks  must  do  the  best 
vith  w'at  they  has,  so  hup  vith  your  mauleys, 
lad.  Time!" 

427 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

More  than  once  I  had  seen  our  rough 
keel-boatmen  of  the  Cumberland  indulge,  when 
soaked  of  rum,  in  what  they  termed  a  "  rough 
and  tumble,"  but  this,  when  Rivera  and  the 
fighting  man  of  Whitechapel  stood  up  to  one 
another,  was  the  first  time  I  was  to  observe  how 
ones  trained  to  fisticuffs  expound  the  game. 
My  keel-boatmen  fought  in  a  biting,  clawing, 
gouging,  wildcat  way  that  was  a  climax  of  bru- 
tality and  blood.  This  would  not  be  the  story 
of  Rivera  and  his  foe,  for  their  labors  were  as 
cleanly  accurate  as  a  cameo,  while  yet  the  blows 
they  dealt  would  have  shaken  an  oak  to  its  core. 

As  the  fighting  man  of  Whitechapel  ex- 
claimed "Time!"  Rivera  and  he  drew  cau- 
tiously over  to  one  another.  I  could  see  how 
each  kept  his  left  hand  well  forward  and  his  left 
foot  advanced  to  bear  it  company,  while  the 
right  foot  was  planted  with  firm  squareness, 
and  no  spring  nor  give  to  the  knee,  but  the  leg 
stiff  to  prop  against  a  blow.  The  right  arm 
would  be  used,  too,  more  as  a  guard  to  save 
the  body,  but  with  hand  in  reserve  clenched 
like  iron  to  deal  a  finishing  blow  whenever  the 
vanguard  or  left  hand  had  opened  the  way  with 
the  enemy. 

Rivera  and  the  fighting  man  sparred  care- 
fully and  as  folk  who  would  test  each  other. 
And  yet,  while  there  abode  with  each  a  wealth 
428 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

of  care  and  a  saving  determination  to  be  sure 
of  guards  and  parries,  there  was  no  slowness. 
They  paced  about  and  before  one  another  like 
two  fighting  panthers,  each  as  ready  as  leven- 
flash  to  have  advantage  of  a  weakness  in  the 
other's  defence. 

To  me  it  was  like  a  picture  of  motion, 
and  a  sense  of  delight  coursed  in  my  veins. 
I  was  so  held,  too,  I  did  not  once  cast  my  eyes 
on  Peg,  who  with  her  hand  on  my  arm  was 
crowded  snug  to  my  side  and — as  I  remem- 
bered later,  when  I  would  learn  the  reason  of 
pain  for  it — leaning  upon  me  with  all  her  slight 
weight.  No,  so  rapt  was  my  gaze  for  the 
moment  that  I  never  once  looked  nor  thought 
on  Peg;  and  that,  let  me  tell  you,  is  a  deal  to 
say,  since  such  was  our  witch-child's  sweet  hold 
on  me  I  could  number  you  few  moments  which 
did  not  find  her  in  the  fond  foreground  of  my 
fancy. 

Of  the  suddenest,  the  fighting  man  fell 
upon  Rivera  like  a  storm.  But  it  would  be  of 
no  avail.  The  blows  he  dealt,  Rivera  caught 
upon  his  forearm ;  and  that  with  so  careless  a 
confidence  it  would  appear  to  sting  the  other. 
In  the  last  of  the  melee  the  fighting  man,  step- 
ping swiftly  near,  struck  a  slashing,  swinging 
blow  that  should  have  cracked  a  skull  had  one 
gotten  in  the  way.  Rivera  leaped  back,  light 
429 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

as  a  goat  and  as  sure.  As  the  big  fist  swept 
harmlessly  on  its  journey,  Rivera  laughed  as  at 
a  jest. 

Our  fighting  man,  however,  would  own  to 
no  turn  for  humor.  The  laugh  hurt  him  like 
the  lash  of  a  rawhide.  Without  pause  or 
space,  and  with  a  sharpness  that  stood  a  marvel 
in  one  so  bulky,  he  repeated  the  smashing 
swing,  but  with  the  other  hand.  Rivera  did 
not  spring  backward ;  indeed,  he  had  no  time, 
even  had  he  carried  the  inclination.  But  it 
would  be  all  one  with  Noah's  protege,  for  he 
ducked  his  head  like  a  wild  fowl  who  dives 
from  the  flash  of  a  gun.  Again  the  blow 
passed  without  scathe ;  only,  this  time,  over 
Rivera's  cunning  head.  The  force  of  the 
swing  half  turned  the  fighting  man ;  with  that, 
and  not  striking  him,  but,  as  though  in  a  spirit 
of  derision,  pushing  with  open  hand,  and 
at  the  same  moment  locking,  as  wrestlers 
would  say,  the  enemy's  ankle  at  the  back  with 
his  foot,  Rivera  tumbled  our  huge  gentleman 
over  on  the  grass.  He  fell  a-sprawl,  but  with 
no  hurt  to  himself,  and  all  as  easy  as  deliver- 
ing a  bale  of  goods  at  one's  door. 

The  fighting  man  got  slowly  to  his  feet. 
Then  he  looked  on  Rivera  with  an  eye  of  puz- 
zled discontent. 

430 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

"  Be  you  playin'  vith  me,  lad?"  said  he  at 
last.  This  in  a  manner  of  injury. 

Rivera  made  no  retort  other  than  his  quiet 
laugh  that  told  rather  of  pleasure  than  amuse- 
ment. Clearly,  Rivera  was  in  enjoyment's  very 
heart  and  his  cup  would  come  to  him  crowned 
of  high  delight. 

The  fighting  man  went  now  and  leaned 
against  a  tree  to  breathe  himself.  Presently  he 
spoke  again ;  I  could  tell  by  the  way  of  it  how 
his  regard  for  Rivera  had  been  augmented. 

u'Ow  'eavy  be  you,  lad?"  he  asked,  his 
breath  still  coming  in  short,  deep  puffs. 

"  One  hundred  and  eighty-two,"  said  Ri- 
vera. 

"  An'  w'at  would  that  be  in  stone?" 

"Thirteen." 

"D'ye  see  now!"  exclaimed  the  fighting 
man,  dejectedly,"  an'  that  should  be  my  veight. 
Only  I'm  a  stone  above  ;  but  it's  fat  an'  does 
me  'arm.  You  bees  a  'ard  un,  young  master, 
an'  I  doant  know  as  'ow  I  can  do  vor  you,  an' 
me  not  trained.  'Owever,  I  shall  try  all  I 
knows.  Time !" 

For  the  second  occasion  the  two  stood 
forth  against  one  another  in  the  middle  of  the 
moonlighted  glade ;  and  again  the  fighting 
man  was  the  aggressor.  It  would  be  still  the 
same  old  tale ;  Rivera  foiled  him  and  beat  him 
43* 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

back  upon  himself  at  every  angle  of  his  effort. 
It  was  like  a  tune  to  simply  see  Rivera ;  for  his 
eye  and  hand  and  foot  worked  all  together  in 
a  fashion  of  harmony  like  the  notes  in  music. 

But  the  dour  end  was  on  its  way,  and  it 
fell  upon  the  victim  like  the  bursting  of  a 
bomb.  The  fighting  man  had  stepped  a  pace 
backward  following  a  rally  in  which  he  won 
nothing  save  chagrin.  As  he  retreated,  Rivera 
would  seem  to  swoop  on  him.  It  was  a  feint 
— an  artifice ;  it  had  for  result,  however,  the 
drawing  of  the  fighting  man  again  upon  Ri- 
vera. Straight  from  his  shoulder,  and  by  way 
of  retort  or  counter  to  the  feint,  the  fighting 
man  sent  his  left  hand  for  Rivera's  face.  It 
would  be  the  situation  wrought  for.  Rivera, 
with  feet  firm  set,  moved  his  head  aside  so 
that  the  blow  met  nothing,  but  whistled  across 
his  left  shoulder.  Then  his  left  hand,  arm  as 
stiff  as  a  bar  of  iron,  met  the  oncoming  foe, 
carried  forward  with  the  momentum  of  his  own 
wasted  blow,  flush  in  the  mouth.  I  heard  the 
sound  of  it,  and  saw  it  jolt  the  other's  head 
back  as  though  he  had  run  against  the  pole  of 
a  baggage  wagon.  The  vicious  emphasis  of  it 
shook  his  senses  in  their  source ;  before  he 
could  rally,  Rivera  dealt  him  a  smashing  blow 
above  the  heart  with  his  right  hand ;  it  was  a 
432 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

buffet  like  the  kick  of  a  pony  and  one  that 
would  have  splintered  a  rock ! 

The  fighting  man  fell  forward  senseless  on 
the  grass  ;  the  moonlight  played  across  his  face 
and  tiny  streams  of  blood  were  running  thinly 
from  his  nose  and  ears.  He  lay  without  motion 
or  quiver,  and,  after  considering  him  a  bit  with 
all  the  warmth  an  artist  might  bestow  upon  a 
masterpiece,  Rivera  turned  loungingly  to  Peg 
and  myself  where  we  were  viewing  proceedings 
from  our  knoll.  There  was  a  dancing  light  in 
Rivera's  eyes  such  as  comes  to  a  child  pleased 
of  a  new  toy.  As  he  stood  before  us,  a  smile 
about  his  mouth,  he  stretched  upward  on  his 
toes,  and  raised  his  hands  above  his  head,  his 
vast  chest  arching  and  swelling  the  while  like  a 
drum,  and  the  muscles  of  his  neck  writhing 
until  they  fairly  burst  the  collar  of  his  gray 
shirt  and  sent  a  button  buzzing  into  the  dark- 
ness. 

"  He  wasn't  fit,"  said  Rivera,  recovering 
himself  from  the  muscle-stretching,  and  beam- 
ing amiably  ;  u  the  fellow  was  not  in  condition." 
Here  he  indicated  with  a  nod  the  prostrate 
fighting  man,  still  stunned  and  bleeding  where 
he  fell. 

"  Have  you  killed  him  ?"  said  Peg,  with  a 
deep  breath.  The  girl  was  drawn  as  tense  as 
harpstrings.  "  I  hope  he  will  not  die." 

433 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"Oh,  no,"  declared  Rivera;  "he  will  not 
die.  In  two  minutes,  or  at  the  most  in  ten,  he 
will  be  well  again.  If  he  do  not  come  to  his 
wits  in  ten  minutes,  I  shall  help  him  with  water 
on  his  face." 

"We  have  to  thank  you,"  said  I;  "you 
are  a  brave  fellow  to  match  yourself  against  a 
horde." 

"  I  was  told  always  to  follow  them,"  said 
Rivera.  "  I  have  been  at  their  heels  for  weeks. 
But  they  would  do  nothing  until  to-night." 
Rivera's  manner  when  he  related  the  long-drawn 
indolence  of  his  quarry  and  those  weeks  wherein 
they  would  "do  nothing,"  tasted  of  disappoint- 
ment. "  However," — this  as  though  a  wrong 
had  been  repaired, — "  they  got  to  work  at  last, 
so  after  all  it  ends  right." 

Now  I  walked  across  to  my  moaning  one 
of  the  broken  arm,  who  still  sat  nursing  his 
injuries. 

"  Why  would  you  rob  us?"  I  asked. 

"  Rob  you?"  he  repeated  between  moans, 
and  with  a  startled  air.  "  No  one  wanted  to 
rob  you." 

"  You  and  your  gang,"  said  I — for  this  was 
the  story  I  meant  to  tell,  if  made  to  tell  one  of 
the  night's  turmoil — "  you  and  your  gang  are 
footpads.  You  would  have  robbed  us.  Should 

434 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

you  be  in  the  town  to-morrow,  I  will  find  you  a 
place  of  bars  and  bolts." 

Certainly,  these  brawling  creatures  were 
not  highwaymen,  but  only  ruffians  whom  that 
Catron  had  hired  for  I  know  not  what  particu- 
lar purpose  of  revenge.  But  the  wretch's  ex- 
clamation, "  Here  is  our  big  lover  and  his  light 
o'  love  !"  alarmed  me  for  Peg.  I  would  not  have 
that  tale  told  to  thus  bring  forth  her  name. 
It  were  better  to  drive  these  fellows  off  and 
have  an  end  of  it.  That  was  my  thought  in 
calling  them  footpads  and  talking  of  attempts 
to  take  a  purse. 

The  argument  of  robbery  put  a  measure  of 
life  into  the  moaning  one  ;  he  got  upon  his  feet 
and  made  ready  to  betake  himself  to  scenes  of 
better  safety. 

"  My  arm  is  broken,"  said  he,  whiningly, 
and  as  hoping  I  might  feel  a  sympathy. 

"  It  should  have  been  your  neck,  instead," 
said  I,  in  no  wise  sympathetic.  "  And  so  it 
would,  had  I  owned  the  forethought  to  have 
had  you  by  the  throat  rather  than  your  arm. 
You  might  better  depart,  sirrah;  else  I  may 
yet  wring  round  your  head,  for  my  spirit  is 
hard  laid  siege  to  by  some  such  twisting  im- 
pulse." 

That  was  enough  ;  our  moaning  one  made 

435 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

shift  to  get  himself  away  through  the  trees  and 
with  not  a  trifle  of  expedition. 

"And  now,  what  will  you  do?"  I  asked 
Rivera. 

"  Oh,  I  shall  remain  here,"  replied  Rivera, 
simply,  "  and  wait  for  him  to  return  to  his  wits." 
Here  he  pointed  to  his  enemy.  "  He  is  a 
very  bold,  strong  man,  and  perhaps  when  he 
has  recovered  and  rested  he  may  want  to  fight 
again."  This  last  sentence  was  vibrant  of  a 
dim  hope. 

Turning  from  me,  Rivera  brought  a  little 
snow-water  in  his  hat  from  a  hollow  where  it 
had  collected  during  the  thaws  and  began  to 
sprinkle  the  face  of  his  fighting  friend  from 
Whitechapel.  Leaving  him  upon  these  labors 
of  grace  and  philanthropy — albeit  I  believe 
the  thought  uppermost  in  his  innocent  heart 
was  that  the  smitten  one,  when  duly  revived? 
might  declare  for  another  battle — I  again  sought 
Peg.  I  went  to  her  something  stricken  of  my 
conscience  and  uneasy  with  the  fear  of  having 
neglected  my  duties  as  her  cavalier.  I  found 
her  sitting  upon  the  little  knoll,  her  foot  drawn 
under  her,  and  she  nursing  her  right  ankle  in  a 
marked  peculiar  way. 

"Was  not  Rivera  grand!"  exclaimed  Peg, 
as  I  came  up.  "  And  you,  too,  watch-dog :  I 
shall  never  forget  the  picture  of  you" — Peg 
436 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

spoke  in  a  bubbling  way  and  as  though  she 
overflowed  of  ecstasy — "as  you  flung  that  cry- 
ing creature  in  the  faces  of  the  others.  It  was 
a  moment  of  nobility;  I  shall  never  miss  it 
from  my  memory." 

"  And  what  has  gone  wrong  with  your 
foot?"  said  I,  for  from  her  crouching  position 
and  the  manner  in  which  she  would  caress  her 
ankle  I  was  struck  with  the  fear  of  some  dis- 
aster ;  nor  was  I  wrong. 

"  It  is  my  ankle,"  said  Peg,  and  I  could 
notice  how  her  brow  was  wrung  with  the  pain 
of  it.  "  As  I  climbed  upon  this  knoll  in  the 
first  of  it,  my  foot  turned  under  me.  I  did 
not  observe  until  just  now  how  sharp  was  the 
injury." 

That  was  the  story ;  Peg's  ankle,  for  all 
her  strong  high  boots,  had  won  to  a  grievous 
wrench. 

"  Now  that  I've  nothing  else  to  think  on," 
said  Peg,  biting  her  lips  to  smother  a  cry, 
"  it  gives  me  torture  like  a  knife." 

"  Your  ankle,"  said  I,  "  is  becoming  swol- 
len ;  and  that  in  those  tight-laced  boots,  let 
me  say,  should  mean  a  torment  of  the  inquisi- 
tion." 

My  years  in  the  field  had  made  me  deft  of 
strains  and  bruises  and,  when  need  pressed, 
even  broken  bones  and  wounds  more  threaten- 

437 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

ing.  I  straightway  knelt  down  before  Peg 
and  began  with  care  to  make  loose  her  foot- 
gear. What  a  little  boot  it  was  !  "  One  and 
one-half "  was  the  size,  so  Peg  told  me.  I 
slipped  the  boot  off  with  mighty  tenderness 
and  put  it  in  the  pocket  of  my  coat. 

"  And  I'm  very  proud  of  my  small  foot, 
watch-dog,"  said  Peg,  a  smile  struggling  with 
the  lines  of  pain  which  pinched  the  corners  of 
her  mouth.  "  Yes,  I  am  proud  of  my  small 
foot.  Why  not?  It  came  to  me  from  that 
same  wareroom  of  nature  where  you  got  your 
great  heart  and  that  arm  of  might,  and  where 
the  good  General  found  his  honesty  and  his 
courage.  I've  as  much  right  to  be  proud  of 
my  foot  as  you  folk  of  those  attributes  of 
excellence  I've  named. " 

Peg  was  striving  to  laugh  down  her  pain 
with  these  compliments  for  her  foot;  I  could 
tell,  moreover,  that  she  was  a  far  cry  from  suc- 
cess, for  her  pretty  argument  ended  in  a  half- 
sob  as  a  pang  more  than  commonly  severe 
crushed  her  poor  ankle  in  its  vise. 

Gently  I  chafed  Peg's  foot ;  and  while  that 
would  do  little  good,  it  served  to  soothe  and 
modify  the  instant  agony.  Meanwhile  I  told 
her  how  I  would  carry  her  home  in  my  arms 
so  soon  as  the  first  grief  of  the  sprain  was 
chafed  away. 

438 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

"  Carry  me  in  your  arms!"  cried  Peg. 

"  What  else  ?"  said  I.     "  You  can't  walk." 

So,  then,  Peg  made  no  more  demur;  and 
presently,  when  her  foot  was  well  enough,  I 
lifted  her  and  started  through  the  woods.  It 
would  be  no  more  than  just  carrying  a  child ; 
and  since  Peg  put  her  arm  about  my  neck,  and 
helped  to  keep  her  place,  my  own  arms  even 
failed  of  the  full  burden  of  her.  It  was  an 
easy  task  at  any  rate,  and  if  you  will  be  told  it, 
a  sweet  task,  too ;  this  walk  with  Peg  held 
close,  and  her  hair,  which  had  been  caught  up 
with  a  comb,  to  fall  down  and  sweep  across  my 
throat  and  face.  I  could  taste  a  fragrance  in 
that  hair  like  a  breath  from  the  Isles  of  Spice — 
a  perfume  that  fair  set  my  bosom  in  a  flame. 

It  might  have  been  the  half  of  a  mile  that 
I  carried  Peg ;  however,  I  had  no  knowledge 
of  it,  whether  for  the  distance  or  the  time,  but 
only  of  a  bliss  that  was  like  a  radiance,  and  a 
heart-willingness  to  go  on  and  on  and  on  to 
the  world's  end. 

It  was  Peg  herself  who  at  last  would  bring 
me  to  my  senses ;  for  I  was  pressing  forward 
as  void  of  speculation  as  a  drunken  man  to 
march  through  the  crowded  avenues  of  the 
town,  Peg  on  my  breast  and  my  two  arms  hold- 
ing her  tight  like  a  treasure. 

"  Put    me    down,    watch-dog,"  whispered 

439 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

Peg,  for  her  mouth  was  at  the  very  door  of 
my  ear,  "  put  me  down.  I  can  stand  well 
enough.  Have  me  down,  and  let  us  wait  here 
until  we  can  call  a  carriage.  It  would  be  a  per- 
plexing sight  to  quiet  folk  were  you  to  go 
striding  through  the  streets  with  such  a  bur- 
den." 

With  a  sigh  to  end  so  dear  a  toil,  I  had 
Peg  down  carefully ;  and  there  she  stood,  and 
as  she  would  say  it,  "  like  a  chicken  on  one 
foot."  It  fell  our  luck  that  one  of  those  car- 
riages of  public  livery,  whereof  there  was  plen- 
tiful store  in  the  town,  drove  by  about  this 
time.  I  called  to  it,  and  placing  Peg  therein, 
soon  had  her  at  her  own  door. 

"I  am  mighty  sorry  for  the  sprain,"  said 
I,  as  I  lifted  Peg  from  the  carnage. 

"Are  you?"  quoth  Peg,  with  an  archness 
that  would  almost  cloak  the  pain.  "  Now  is 
that  gallant  of  you,  watch-dog  ?"  Then,  mak- 
ing a  mock  of  my  words  and  manner:  "I  am 
mighty  glad  for  the  sprain.  Only,  I  could  wish 
my  mother  lived  farther  away.  I  never  knew 
how  close  she  was  till  now." 

As  the  winter  wore  into  spring,  the  talk  to 
swell  and  grow  was  of  Nullification.  Calhoun's 
state  of  South  Carolina  had  laid  aside  disguise, 
and  while  nothing  worse  than  speeches,  with 
now  and  then  a  doughty  resolution,  were  in- 
440 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

dulged  in,  these  showed  ever  of  that  rebellious 
sort  that  waited  only  to  be  turned  into  action 
to  become  sufficient  treason.  The  General  sat 
brooding  and  watching  the  drift;  his  plans  of 
men  and  rifles  and  ships  laid  like  a  trap,  and 
set  to  snap  up  in  the  jaws  of  them  the  first 
traitor  to  be  afoot  for  that  secession  the  Cal- 
houn  clique  would  claim  was  each  state's  holy 
right.  Altogether,  the  days  were  on  a  strain, 
and  hair  turned  white  and  folk  went  pale  of  the 
cheek  with  the  worry  of  the  question  "  How  will 
this  ferment  end?" 

The  one  query  of  most  concern  related  to 
the  General.  What  would  he  do  ?  To  what  line 
would  his  resentment  travel  ?  Folk  knew  how 
he  was  against  Secession  and  States  Rights  and 
Nullification,  or  whatever  the  name  might  be 
wherewith  iniquitous  rebellion  pleased  itself  for 
the  moment,  but  would  he  treat  these  sins  of 
politics  as  stark  treason?  Would  he  fall  back 
on  courts  and  hangman's  ropes  in  dealing  with 
them? 

No  one  might  tell.  The  General,  after  he 
made  himself  plain  with  that  Rhetz  who  came 
to  spy  out  his  resolves,  would  say  no  farther 
word.  Ones  in  interest  might  go  wrong  or  go 
right ;  as  for  the  General  himself,  he  would  light 
no  more  lamps. 

441 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"Have  I  not  told  them  what  I  will  do?" 
cried  the  General.  u  Must  I  be  out  of  my  bed 
o'  nights  to  tell  them  again  ?  No  ;  let  these 
would-be  treason-mongers  proceed  as  they  see 
their  way.  Besides,  to  hang  the  right  man  now 
may  save  the  lives  of  later  thousands." 

This  was  said  for  my  ear  alone  ;  to  no  other 
would  the  General  so  much  as  give  one  look  of 
yea  or  nay. 

While  the  General  would  be  the  sphinx 
over  Nullification,  prudent  rebellionists  argued 
for  a  waiting  strategy.  There  would  dawn 
the  anniversary  of  Jefferson's  birthday;  there 
would  come  that  dinner  at  the  Indian  Queen ; 
the  General's  conduct  if  not  his  words  on  that 
occasion  must  surely  tell  his  story  of  decision. 
Should  he  remain  away,  they  would  know  he 
feared  to  face  them.  Should  he  be  present, 
they  would  try  him  with  toasts  of  treason  and 
mark  his  manner  under  fire.  They  would  ask 
him  for  a  sentiment;  what  he  said  or  did  in 
retort  might  give  them  every  needed  glimpse. 
Decidedly,  it  was  wise  to  wait ;  Secession  would 
keep  ;  in  the  name  of  one's  neck  and  a  rope, 
proceedings  might  better  be  stayed  until  those 
toast  experiments  on  the  General  were  given  a 
chance. 

The  General  was  well  enough  pleased  with 
this  uncertainty  whereof  he  now  found  himself 
442 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

the  hub.  He  guarded  his  words,  left  every 
man  to  grope  out  his  own  path  for  himself,  and 
the  days  coursed  on  with  the  unanswered  ques- 
tion of  the  General's  determination  in  their 
mouths.  Thus  dwelt  the  business  on  that  day 
of  April  from  the  developments  whereof  so 
much  was  to  be  hoped. 

For  the  prior  space  of  eight  weeks  or  more 
the  General  had  said  little  to  me  of  that  banquet 
planned  of  nullifiers  to  uncover  him  on  those 
topics  of  perilous  statecraft.  Seeing  his  taste 
to  be  mysterious,  I  would  say  nothing  to  the 
General,  whether  to  ask  a  question  or  give  a 
hint  of  conduct,  but  left  him  to  himself.  I 
knew  what  he  would  do  ;  and  for  the  detail  of 
how  he  would  go  upon  its  execution,  I  was  the 
more  willing  to  miss  a  forecast  of  it  since  I 
have  a  weakness  for  the  unknown  and  am  as 
prone  as  any  other  to  save  up  surprise  for  my- 
self. Wherefore,  I  would  have  the  General 
make  his  own  maps  and  design  his  own  ambus- 
cades, and  leave  me  in  blindness  of  them.  On 
that  April  morning  I  owned  no  sure  knowledge 
that  the  General  would  even  attend  the  banquet, 
to  say  naught  of  what  he  might  do  or  say  if 
ever  he  once  were  there. 

It  was  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  when 
the  General  looked  into  my  workshop,  pipe  in 
mouth,  and  said  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  a 

443 


PEGGY  O          NBA! 

twinkle  that  was  both  mirthful  and  hard:  "  Ma- 
jor, I  take  it  you  and  I  will  go  to  that  dinner 
to-night?" 

The  General  would  put  this  as  though  it 
were  a  question ;  not  because  it  stood  unsettled 
and  unsaid  as  a  thing  resolved,  but  it  was  the 
way  of  him  when  he  would  pay  you  a  compli- 
ment to  pretend  a  consultation,  and  coax  you 
into  a  council,  hoping  you  would  advise  those 
things  he  was  already  resolved  upon  like  iron 
and  which  were  often  half  performed. 

For  all  I  was  aware  of  this  talent  on  the  Gen- 
eral's part  to  be  polite,  and  was  certain,  when 
he  glanced  in  through  my  door,  that  both  of  us 
would  be  of  the  band  about  those  Indian  Queen 
tables,  I  was  quick  to  humor  his  whim  for  the 
mysterious  and  undecided.  I  looked  up  as  one 
who  turns  a  new  proposal  on  the  wheel  of  his 
thoughts. 

"  It  is  my  idea,"  said  I  at  last,  with  the 
air  of  a  man  who  likes  the  notion's  flavor, 
"  that  your  presence  would  work  for  good.  I 
should  say  we  might  better  go.  We  may 
count  the  enemy,  and  that  at  least  should  be 
something." 

"  You  are  right,"  returned  the  General. 
"We  will  go;  and  I  think,  too,  it  might  be 
good  policy  to  let  the  foe  count  us." 

The  Indian  Queen  was  a  crowded  hostelry 

444 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

that  night.  The  halls  and  waiting  rooms  of 
the  tavern  were  thronged  of  eminent  ones. 
Some  were  present  to  attend  the  Jefferson  din- 
ner ;  others  casually  for  gossip  and  to  hear  the 
news. 

As  the  General  and  I  would  be  going  up 
the  stair,  my  eye  was  caught  by  the  heavy 
shoulders  and  lion  face  of  Webster  coming 
down. 

"  There's  too  much  Secession  in  the  wind 
for  me,"  remarked  Webster,  as  the  General 
asked  if  he  were  going  away. 

"  You  did  not  leave  the  Senate  for  that," 
responded  the  General.  "  If  Secession  be  here, 
it's  a  reason  for  remaining." 

Webster  shrugged  his  big  shoulders  and 
went  on. 

As  I  gazed  at  the  group — waiting,  they 
were,  for  the  opening  of  the  banquet  hall — I 
met  many  a  great  face.  Among  those  about 
the  stair-head  and  in  the  rooms  beyond  were 
Colonel  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  tall  of  form, 
grave  of  eye,  he  who  slew  Tecumseh ;  Benton, 
big,  pompous,  wise  but  with  a  bottomless  con- 
ceit; the  lean  Rufus  Choate,  eloquent  and 
sound  ;  Corwin,  round,  humorous,  with  a  face 
of  ruddy  fun ;  White,  the  dignified,  in  the 
Senate  from  my  own  state  of  Tennessee ;  Hill, 
gray  and  lame,  the  General's  friend  in  New 
445 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

Hampshire;  Noah,  my  Hebrew  with  red  hair; 
Van  Buren,  Peg's  "good  little  secretary"  of 
state  ;  Vaughn,  the  British  minister  ;  the  quick- 
eyed  Amos  Kendall,  with  Blair  by  his  side;  the 
recreant  Duff  Green,  now  wholly  for  Calhoun; 
Calhoun  himself,  pale,  scholarly  and  fine  ;  Huy- 
gens,  that  ministerial  tubby  personage,  gin- 
bleary  and  dull ;  Krudener,  the  Russian  ;  Eaton, 
easy,  florid,  urbane  ;  Branch  and  Berrien  and 
Barry  and  Ingham  and  the  reckless  Marcy. 

The  dinner  was  spread.  The  decorations 
were  studied  in  their  democracy.  Hundreds 
of  candles  from  many-armed  iron  branches 
blazed  about  the  plain  walls  of  the  room  and 
made  the  light  of  day.  For  the  rest,  the  hall 
was  hung  with  flags.  The  stars  and  stripes,  to 
be  a  centerpiece,  was  draped  about  a  portrait 
of  Jefferson  just  to  the  rear  of  the  place  where 
Lee  of  Virginia,  who  was  to  preside,  would 
sit.  Extending  around  the  four  sides  of  the 
room  were  festooned  the  flags  of  the  several 
states. 

With  peculiar  ostentation,  and  next  to  the 
national  colors,  flowed  the  banner  of  South 
Carolina,  with  its  palmetto  and  rattlesnake — 
Calhoun's  emblem. 

"Do  you  see  it?"  said  the  General  in  a 
low  tone,  as  we  approached  our  places,  "  do 
446 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

you  see  Calhoun's  flag?  That  serpent  may 
rattle  but  it  must  not  strike." 

"And  if  it  strike?" 

"  If  it  strike,  it  dies." 

Profusion  and  elegance  were  displayed  in 
the  arrangements,  with  none  of  that  long- 
drawn  foolishness  of  courses  so  dear  to  Whigs 
and  Federals  and  other  imitators  of  an  Eng- 
lish nobility.  Black  servants  came  and  went  to 
shift  one's  plate  and  knife,  or  to  aid  in  carving 
at  the  call  of  a  guest.  At  hopeful  intervals 
along  the  tables  reposed  huge  sirloins  and 
smoking  rounds  of  beef;  there  were  quail 
pies  and  chickens  fried  and  turkeys  roasted ; 
there  stood  pies  of  venison  and  rabbit  and 
pot-pies  of  squirrels ;  soups  and  fishes  and 
vegetables ;  boiled  hams  and  giant  dishes  of 
earthenware  holding  baked  pork  and  beans ; 
roast  suckling  pigs  and  each  with  a  crab-apple 
in  its  mouth.  There  were  corn  breads  and 
flour  breads  and  pancakes  rolled  with  jellies  ; 
sideboards  upheld  puddings — Indian,  rice  and 
plum — quaking  custards,  and  scores  of  kindred 
dainties.  Everywhere  bristled  ranks  and  double 
ranks  of  bottles  and  decanters,  and  a  widest 
range  of  drinks,  from  whisky  to  wine  of  the 
cape,  were  at  one's  call.  There,  too,  stood 
wooden  bowls  of  salads  on  side  tables,  sup- 
ported of  weighty  cheeses;  and  to  close  in  the 

447 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

flanks  were  pies,  mince  and  pumpkin  and 
apple,  with  final  coffee,  and  slim  long  pipes 
with  tobacco  of  Trinidad  for  folk  who  would 
smoke. 

Before  we  were  seated,  and  while  we  stood 
to  our  places,  the  sentiment  was  proposed  : 

"The  memory  of  Thomas  Jefferson." 

The  toast  was  drunk  in  silence ;  all  could 
agree  on  Jefferson ;  and  then  with  clatter  of 
knife  and  fork,  the  thirsty  clink  of  glasses, 
and  the  murmurous  hum  of  conversation  over 
all,  the  work  of  the  night  commenced. 

As  the  moments  roved  on,  Nullification 
and  Secession  became  so  much  the  open  ob- 
jects of  many  present,  and  were  withal  so 
loosely  in  the  common  air,  that  sundry  gentle- 
men— more  timorous  than  loyal,  perhaps- 
made  excuses  and  withdrew. 

The  General's  presence  was  a  plain  sur- 
prise to  more  than  one ;  they  could  not  con- 
strue it.  For  himself,  he  carried  it  off  as  though 
his  being  there  were  the  most  expected  of 
possible  things.  The  General  sat  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  presiding  Lee.  I  was,  myself,  to 
the  General's  right  hand.  Opposite  was  Cal- 
houn  with  that  Calhoun  triangle  of  the  cabinet, 
Berrien,  Branch  and  Ingham.  The  quartet 
got  on  most  beamingly.  The  General,  as  we 

44* 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

came  up,  rendered  them  a  sweeping  bow  which 
they  might  share  among  them. 

"  Calhoun,"  whispered  the  General,  indi- 
cating the  Vice-President  with  a  nod,  "  is,  you 
see,  openly  claiming  his  half  of  my  cabinet. 
I'll  startle  him  some  day  by  making  him  a 
present  of  the  three." 

An  hour  passed  on;  the  banquet  reached 
that  glass-and-bottle  stage  which  Noah  antici- 
pated. There  were  a  round  score  of  regular 
toasts;  each  would  smell  of  secession,  while 
the  speeches  were  even  more  malodorous  of 
that  villainy. 

I,  with  a  hundred  others,  was  narrowly 
watching  the  General,  and,  well  as  I  knew 
him,  I  wondered  at  the  calmness  wherewith  he 
maintained  himself.  This  man  who  had  a  ge- 
nius for  anger,  who  went  head-free  into  each 
debate,  who  offered  you  his  last  thoughts  in  an 
unrestricted  stream  of  talk,  would  now  be  as 
impassive  as  marble.  The  General,  through- 
out these  wordy  treasons  of  speech  and  toast, 
showed  cold  and  stern  and  master  of  a  dig- 
nity that  became  both  himself  and  the  exalted 
character  of  his  station. 

The  hour  was  hurrying  towards  the  late. 
Calhoun  glanced  across  at  the  General;  there 
was  a  questioning  uneasiness  in  his  look.  Evi- 
dently the  urgent  moment  was  at  hand. 

449 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

Calhoun  offered  a  slip  of  paper  to  Lee, 
presiding,  and  whispered  a  word. 

"The  Vice-President  proposes  a  toast," 
cried  Lee. 

There  fell  a  stillness,  laughter  died  and 
talk  was  hushed.  The  Chairman  read  : 

"  '  The  Federal  Union.  Next  to  our  liberty,  the 
most  dear.  May  we  all  remember  that  it  can  only 
be  preserved  by  respecting  the  rights  of  the  States, 
and  distributing  equally  the  benefits  and  the  burden 
of  the  Union.'" 

That'stillness  of  death  continued,  marked 
and  profound.  Folk  strained  and  craned  at 
both  the  General  and  Calhoun  as  do  ones  who 
would  observe  the  effect  of  a  shot.  There  were 
eyes  replete  of  interrogation,  and  if  one  must 
have  it  truly  told,  defiance,  to  be  peculiarly 
turned  upon  the  General. 

For  his  part,  the  General  never  wore  a 
loftier  look.  He  scribbled  a  quick  line  and 
gave  it  to  the  Chairman. 

"The  President  offers  a  toast."  Then  sol- 
emnly, as  one  who  feels  its  import : 

'"THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE 
PRESERVED.'  ' 

The  General's  glance  was  on  Calhoun,  as 
pointed  as  a  sword.  His  eye  was  fierce  with  a 
sort  of  gray  fury  like  the  eye  of  some  fight- 
ing eagle.  Calhoun  for  a  moment  gave  him 
450 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

look  for  look  ;  then  his  glance  fell,  his  face 
whitened,  he  would  seem  to  shrink  and  sear 
and  wither  before  the  man  of  fire.  It  was  as 
though  he  saw  the  future's  danger,  or  felt 
some  gallows  prophecy  thereof.  In  the  end  he 
sat  like  one  under  a  blackness  of  shadow. 

The  General  it  was  who  broke  the  spell. 
Pushing  back,  he  arose,  and  bowing  to  the 
Chairman  who  still  sat  with  that  toast  of 
menace  in  his  hand  he  began  moving  towards 
the  door.  His  head  was  lifted,  and  he  bore 
himself  as  should  one  who  flings  a  gauntlet  to 
the  world.  Openly,  obviously,  defiantly,  he 
set  his  heel  on  Secession's  head  in  the  midst 
of  Secession's  champions. 

Pausing,  the  General  swept  those  present, 
letting  his  look  of  challenge  rest  on  each  one 
in  his  turn.  It  was  as  though  he  questioned 
them:  "Where,  now,  is  your  courage?" 

There  was  none  to  retort  to  him.  Folk 
scented  peril  on  him  as  cattle  smell  in  the  wind 
the  unborn  storm. 

"  The  Federal  Union.  It  must  be  pre- 
served." The  General,  as  though  to  call  a 
last  attention,  repeated  his  toast.  Then,  with 
burning  eye  laid  full  upon  Calhoun,  and  think- 
ing, doubtless,  on  Overton  and  Crockett  and 
Houston  and  Dale  and  Coflfee  and  those  rifle- 
men in  hunting  shirts  and  leggings,  and  on 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

the  ships  and  Scott  and   Castle   Pinckney,  he 
added:  "And  it  shall  be  preserved." 

It  was  the  moment  pregnant  and  mighty; 
the  moment  when  one  man  foiled  a  plot  to 
stampede  history  itself,  and  calmed  and  turned 
and  drove  the  herd  of  events  in  a  right  na- 
tional direction  for  the  Union  and  to  fields  of 
quiet  peace.  Treason's  heart  and  Treason's 
hand  were  palsied  with  a  toast  of  seven  words, 
when  now  the  words  came  wedded  with  the 
grim,  relentless  courage  that  would  die  or 
make  them  true. 

The  galleries  about  the  big  room  were 
filled  with  women  looking  on,  Peg  among  the 
others.  When  the  General  and  I  were  again 
at  the  White  House,  late  as  stood  the  hour, 
we  found  Peg  waiting.  I  never  saw  a  being 
more  given  over  to  fire  than  was  our  Peg. 

"Was  he  not  noble?"  cried  Peg,  when  she 
would  have  me  alone  for  a  moment.  "  Was  he 
not  grand?  I  would  give  my  life  if  for  one 
hour  I  might  be  a  man,  and  be  a  man  like 
that." 

And  yet  for  all  the  plain  sureness  of  that 
toast,  and  the  General's  looks  of  decision 
which  were  sent  to  be  its  escort,  the  rebel- 
lionists  would  ask  a  further  sign.  They  sent 
the  insinuating  Rhetz  to  call  upon  the  Gen- 
eral. That  was  the  next  morning. 
452 


THE  FEDERAL  UNION:  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED 

The  politic  Rhetz  presented  himself,  and 
the  General  met  him  with  a  manner  of  studied 
distance.  He  would  have  the  visitor  to  know 
how  he  held  him  for  no  friend.  This  was 
meant  to  give  the  General's  words  more  weight, 
since  the  other  would  understand  that  he  stood 
upon  guard  and  spoke  nothing  he  did  not 
intend  to  carry  out. 

41  Mr.  President,"  said  Rhetz,  suavely  def- 
erential, "  I  go  back  to  my  home  to-morrow. 
Have  you  any  message  for  your  South  Car- 
olina friends?" 

44  Yes,"  returned  the  General,  with  his 
cold  eye  on  the  questioner,  "  yes,  I  have  a  mes- 
sage for  my  friends  of  South  Carolina."  The 
words  were  coming  with  a  slow  emphasis  like 
a  sentence  of  death.  "  Their  state  is  a  part  of 
the  Union,  and  a  part  of  the  Union  it  shall  re- 
main. You  may  tell  them,  if  one  South  Caro- 
lina finger  be  raised  in  defiance  of  this  govern- 
ment, that  I  shall  come  down  there ;  and  once 
I'm  there,  I'll  hang  the  first  man  I  lay  hands  on 
to  the  first  tree  I  can  reach." 


453 


CHAPTER  XV 

HOW    PEG   WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG. 

Now  when  the  General's  toast  at  that  ban- 
quet in  the  Indian  Queen  had  gone  abroad,  it 
would  have  the  effect  of  a  warning,  each  man 
taking  it  home.  A  mighty  silence  fell  upon 
States  Rights ;  the  foxes  of  Nullification  found 
their  dens,  and  were  to  be  noticed  for  a  sudden 
absence  from  one's  eye  and  ear  where  but  the 
day  before  with  their  presence  and  their  yelp- 
ings they  would  fill  both. 

It  will  have  a  strange  look,  but  it  was  the 
General,  himself,  who  of  all  folk  fostered  a  dis- 
trust of  his  course. 

It  was  to  Noah  and  me  he  one  day  told 
this.  Noah  mentioned  the  vast  silence  of  a 
voiceless  conservatism  which  had  fallen  upon 
that  movement  of  Secession,  late  so  reboant 
and  rampant. 

"  And  yet,"  said  the  General,  "  the  story 
of  the  country  will  at  last  show  me  wrong." 

"  Will  you  say  how?"  asked  Noah.  "  Surely, 
you  do  not  doubt  the  common  need  of  a  union 
between  the  States,  and  one  strong  enough  to 
defy  the  caprice  or  the  ambition  of  a  clique?" 

454 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

"  My  sentiment  for  the  Union,"  said  the 
General,  "  has  suffered  no  modification,  and  it 
is  because  I  stand  for  union  and  would  die  for 
union,  that  I  am  not  sure  of  the  wisdom  of 
that  toast  of  mine.  It  would  have  been  better 
to  stand  aloof,  and  let  Secession  go  the  length 
of  treason.  Had  I  held  to  such  a  course,  per- 
haps as  many  as  one  hundred  might  have  an- 
swered for  the  crime  with  their  lives.  But  the 
question  would  have  been  settled  ;  the  dispute 
would  have  been  made  res  adjudicata  and  the  fu- 
ture forever  freed  of  that  struggle.  Now  the 
serpent  is  only  bruised,  not  killed ;  in  years  to 
follow  yours  and  mine  it  will  revive  in  rebellion 
and  may  yet  crush  the  country  in  its  folds." 

"  I  can  not  think  you  are  right,"  said  I,  for 
I  was  having  part  in  the  conversation  with  the 
others  ;  "  I  am  no  judge,  or  you  have  closed  the 
door  against  this  Nullification." 

"Ay!"  responded  the  General,  "closed 
but  not  locked  the  door.  It  should  have  been 
barred  with  a  gibbet.  Folk  are  not  taught  by 
threats  but  by  example.  Had  I  stayed  myself 
until  the  leaders  for  Secession  went  so  far  they 
were  hanged  for  it,  that  would  have  meant  the 
end.  Now  the  business  is  deferred  ;  the  coun- 
try will  yet  be  forced  to  fight  a  civil  war  and 
wade  knee-deep  in  blood  to  save  itself." 

455 


o 


"  Is  it,"  asked  Noah,  curiously,  "  is  it  now 
you  first  hold  these  views?" 

"  They  are  not  new,"  returned  the  General; 
"  I  owned  them  from  the  beginning.  But  I 
lacked  the  hardihood  to  act  on  them.  I  grow 
old  ;  I  have  been  in  my  hour  the  instrument  by 
which  so  much  blood  has  been  shed  that  in  my 
grey  age  I  shrink  from  more.  That  toast  was 
devised  to  save  myself  from  spilling  further 
blood ;  I  was  thinking  on  myself  when  I 
framed  it  and  not  of  those  black  ones  who 
would  do  treason.  Its  great  purpose  was  to 
save  me  from  becoming  their  executioner." 

"Now  your  feeling  is  mine  too,"  observed 
Noah,  shaking  a  thoughtful  head.  "  The  seed 
of  the  whole  trouble  is  slavery ;  while  that  ex- 
ists, the  certain  chance  of  civil  war  stands 
open." 

"And  how  would  one  be  rid  of  it?"  de- 
manded the  General,  passionately.  "Washing- 
ton was  against  slavery,  Jefferson  was  against  it, 
Franklin  was  against  it,  every  great  one  whose 
trowel  employed  itself  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  our  government  was  against  it,  and  yet  there 
to-day  it  lives.  They  could  not  cope  with  slav- 
ery ;  how,  then,  shall  we  ?" 

"  It  existed  in  the  North,"  said  Noah,  "  and 
it  was  wiped  out." 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM     PEG 

14  The  slaves  were  few  in  the  North,"  re- 
sponded the  General;  "  as  chattels  they  made 
but  a  slim  fraction  of  that  region's  riches. 
Moreover,  slavery  did  not  pay  a  Northern 
profit.  It  is  easy,  when  there  is  money  loss,  to 
abandon  the  cause  of  that  loss.  But  conditions 
within  the  present  boundaries  of  slavery  show 
otherwise.  The  slave's  cost  of  keep  is  less,  his 
months  of  labor  more  in  number,  and  he  is  not 
winter-killed  with  maladies  of  the  lungs.  More- 
over, your  slave  makes  a  fairer  unit  of  labor  in 
rice  savannahs  and  cotton  fields,  where  a  plan- 
tation carries  thousands  of  acres,  than  he  did 
where  land  was  more  divided  and  a  farm  of 
a  hundred  and  sixty  acres  the  common  hold- 
ing of  a  man.  In  short,  the  slave  spins  that 
money  profit  for  the  South  which  was  lacking 
in  the  North.  That  fact  of  profit — the  greed 
of  men — will  meet  folk  who  would  free  the  slave 
and  make  you  a  mighty  difference." 

"  And  still,"  said  Noah,  "  slavery  should 
be  stricken  down." 

"To  that  I  agree,"  remarked  the  General, 
"but  again  I  ask  you,  How?  Certain  of  our 
New  England  radicals,  when  they  shout  for 
Abolition,  cry  'Down  with  slavery!'  as  lightly 
as  one  should  say:  'Marry!  swallow  a  straw- 
berry.' When  a  man  is  in  the  upper  story  of 
a  burning  house  he  does  not  hur!  himself  from 

457 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

a  window,  he  descends  by  the  stair.  Let  us, 
when  now  we  be  ablaze  over  slavery — for  it  is 
that,  as  you  say,  to  lie  at  the  bottom  of  this 
whole  movement  of  States  Rights — let  us  grope 
cautiously  until  we  find  the  safe  stairway  of  es- 
cape." 

"It  is  not  so  clear  to  my  mind,"  said  I, 
for  the  spirit  to  lecture,  excited  by  example, 
began  to  move  within  me,  "  that  slavery  is  so 
bad  for  the  blacks.  One  must  have  account 
for  a  difference  of  race.  You  would  not  insist 
that  a  deer  tear  a  prey  with  his  teeth  and 
howl  on  some  hill  of  midnight  like  a  wolf.  It 
has  been  the  never-flagging  mistake  of  gov- 
ernment to  deal  with  the  Indian  as  though  he 
were  white,  and  enforce  pale-face  conditions 
upon  him.  It  would  be  as  rife  of  error 
to  proceed  with  the  negro  as  though  he  were 
white  or  could  work  out  a  white  man's  des- 
tiny. Make  the  black  man  free,  and  I  tell  you 
he  will  be  as  helpless  as  a  ship  ashore  on  the 
instant." 

"  To  better  the  black,"  said  the  General, 
"is  not  my  argument;  I  am  against  slavery  to 
better  the  white  man.  When  I  seek  to  destroy 
slavery,  it  is  the  master  I  would  free,  and  not 
the  slave." 

Just  what  the  General  would  intend  by 
this  last  I  had  no  opportunity  to  discover,  for 
458 


How    PEG. WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

the  zealous  Jim  was  heard  at  the  door,  usher- 
ing in  our  Peg. 

"  Never  mind,  Miss  Peg,"  I  could  hear 
Jim  say,  in  a  way  of  patronizing  reassurance, 
and  evidently  in  combat  of  some  suggestion 
of  Peg's  that  she  would  defer  her  appearance 
among  us,  "never  mind  about  d'Marse  Major 
an'  d'Marse  Gen'ral  an'  that  red-head  Jew 
gentleman  argufyin'.  That  don't  count  for 
nothin' ;  they're  allers  at  it,  night  an'  day,  argu- 
fyin' away  like  they  aint  got  a  minute  to  live, 
and  nothin'  to  never  come  of  it.  Never  mind 
'em,  Miss  Peg ;  you-all  jes'  trapse  right  along 
in  an'  declar'  your  urrent." 

With  Peg's  coming,  Noah  made  polite 
expedition  to  retire;  nothing  one  might  do  o; 
say  would  serve  to  keep  him.  He  who  could 
look  a  man  in  the  eye  and  stand  knee  to  knee 
with  him  for  life  or  death,  feared  a  woman 
as  though  she  were  a  ghost  and  fled  from  the 
mere  sight  of  her. 

"  I  am  somewhat  abashed,"  said  Peg,  "  to 
think  of  the  disturbance  I  have  caused,  and 
that  I  drive  away  your  visitor."  This  to  the 
General.  "Why  did  you  not  make  him  stay? 
I  shall  never  forget  my  debt  to  him ;  and  I'm 
glad,  too,  he  is  so  much  your  favorite." 

"  Noah  puts  us  all  in  his  debt,"  said  the 
General.  "  To  me  he  is  the  man  remarkable ; 

459 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

fine,  high,  yet  bold  and  quick,  there  will  be  no 
one  to  take  his  place  when  he  is  gone." 

Peg's  purpose  was  to  tell  the  General— 
for  he  had  asked  the  question  in  a  little  note 
that  morning — how  she  should  like  the  dinner 
and  that  East  Room  dance  he  offered,  on  the 
next  evening  but  one. 

"Is  not  the  time  too  short?"  asked  the 
General.  "  Forty-eight  hours  would  seem  no 
mighty  space  for  folk  to  make  themselves  pre- 
pared. They  may  own  other  engagements." 

"There  will  be  no  engagements,"  said 
Peg.  "  The  season  is  quite  at  an  end ;  the 
Redsticks,  as  you  christened  them,  closed  their 
defeated  doors  six  weeks  ago,  and  for  our  own 
side,  we  only  continued  our  receptions  two 
weeks  longer  to  show  how  we  remained  mas- 
ters of  the  field.  There  will  stand  nothing  in 
the  way ;  and  as  for  space  to  be  ready  in,  why, 
then,  folk  don't  need  hours,  but  only  minutes, 
when  the  invitation  is  from  the  White  House." 

"  Let  us  say  the  day  following  to-morrow, 
then,"  said  the  General.  "  It  shall  be  for  your 
victory,  child,  and  to  celebrate  it.  Also,  since 
the  losers  as  well  as  the  victors  have  proper 
place  in  a  triumph,  and,  again,  because  it  will 
look  like  the  olive  branch  and  an  expression  of 
peace,  we  will  bid  both  friend  and  foe  to  this 
•**  460 


How    PEG.  WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

merrymaking,  and  mark  it  with  as  wide  a  good 
feeling  as  our  opponents  will  accept." 

Peg's  dinner,  as  dinners  go,  was  a  creature 
of  magnificence,  with  Peg,  beautiful  as  a  moss- 
rose,  at  the  General's  right,  and  Dolly  Madi- 
son's own  silver — massy,  and,  as  the  women  said, 
"  gorgeous," — to  glisten  on  the  white  napery. 
The  General's  wide-flung  invitations  were  as 
widely  accepted  ;  and  not  alone  the  Van  Burens 
and  the  Krudeners  and  the  Vaughns,  but  the 
Calhouns  and  the  Berriens  and  the  Branches, 
and  all  of  the  sept  of  Nullification,  were  there, 
as  though  to  put  down  any  surmise  of  sulky  fear 
for  themselves  to  be  the  offshoot  of  that  con- 
flict of  the  toasts.  Even  the  frivolous  Pigeon- 
breast  was  with  us  undismayed  ;  albeit  he  prac- 
ticed a  forbearance  touching  Peg,  and  never 
once  after  the  first  formalities  so  far  forgot  his 
caution  as  to  be  near  enough  to  that  sparkling 
lady  to  court  the  awful  hazard  of  her  glance. 

There  came  but  one  clash  beneath  my  no- 
tice, and  that  would  feed  my  humor.  Houston 
was  just  come  into  town,  as  rude  and  tangled  a 
gentleman  in  every  politer  technicality  as  the 
bears  of  his  native  woods.  With  him  for  his 
table-mate  he  bore  away  the  wife  of  Ingham 
of  the  Treasury.  Houston  guarded  his  prize 
to  her  place  with  a  ferocious  backwoods  vigi- 
lance as  though  it  were  indeed  the  enemy's  coun- 
461 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

try  and  they  in  peril  pf  some  Indian  ambuscade 
with  each  new  room  they  entered.  The  lady, 
with  a  tact  as  crude  as  Houston's  knowledge  of 
the  drawing-room,  perceiving  the  savageries  of 
her  protector,  would  be  prompt  to  establish 
herself  as  directress  of  his  manners.  Poor 
Houston  suffered  more  than  once  the  humilia- 
tion of  the  lady's  counsel,  given  in  a  high,  ob- 
vious voice,  and  with  the  manner  of  one  who 
corrects  a  novice  dull  to  the  confines  of  de- 
spair. 

The  rupture  befell  over  fish  and  when  a 
portion  of  delicate  pompano  was  placed  before 
the  headlong  Houston. 

"  That  is  not  the  fish  fork,"  cautioned  the 
lady  in  a  whisper  so  loud  it  bred  a  smile  on 
thirty  faces  either  side  of  her  ;  "  that  is  not  the 
fish  fork  ;  here,  take  this." 

"  By  Satan's  hoofs,  madam  !"  exclaimed  the 
wrathful  Houston,  whose  long-stifled  resent- 
ment would  now  be  in  the  saddle,  at  the  same 
time  brandishing  the  huge  trident  he  had  some- 
how gotten  hold  on  ;  "  by  Satan's  hoofs!  keep 
your  fish  forks  for  whom  you  will.  For  myself, 
I'll  eat  this  catfish  with  my  saber  if  I  have  the 
mind." 

Later  I  heard  the  distempered  lady  confide 
to  a  neighbor  how  Houston  was  "  an  untaught 
brute,"  while  that  hurt  hero  told  me  on  his 
462 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

word  as  a  man  that  for  those  several  hours  he 
was  in  her  company,  he  had  less  of  ease  than  at 
the  Horseshoe  where  he  was  given  four  wounds. 

The  East  Room,  when  agile  ones  would 
dance  was  brilliant  in  white  and  gold  and  crystal 
chandeliers,  with  floor  of  water-soaked  oak  so 
polished  it  reflected  the  gay  dresses  like  a  look- 
ing-glass, and  so  slippery  that  clumsy  ones,  like 
myself,  went  gingerly  about  it  in  terror  for  their 
bones. 

Peg  was  as  glorious  as  a  star,  and  to  me 
never  more  lovely,  albeit  my  coral  on  her  bosom 
may  have  had  somewhat  to  do  with  that.  And  to 
see  her  so  bowed  to  and  flattered  was  like  a 
perfume  ;  for  it  looked  as  though  the  foe  would 
forego  those  old-time  tactics  of  distance  and 
averted  gaze,  and  that  a  new  word  was  abroad 
in  Peg's  behalf.  There  came  no  one  to  more 
emphasize  his  courtesy  or  show  more  attentive 
in  what  might  do  Peg  honor  than  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent  himself,  and  with  him  were  the  members 
of  that  cabinet  triumvirate  who  had  cast  in  their 
narrow  lots  with  him.  Even  the  stately  Mrs. 
Calhoun  would  be  gracious  in  a  far-off  sort, 
while  the  ladies  Berrien  and  Branch  relaxed 
from  a  former  frigidity,  and  if  not  torrid,  were 
at  all  events  of  the  temperate  zone  when  the 
etiquette  of  the  floor  would  bring  Peg  and 
them  in  contact.  As  for  the  vigorous  Madam 
463 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

Ingham,  she  was  so  overcome  of  her  labors  in 
elevation  of  Houston  that  following  dinner  she 
could  do  nothing  but  repose  herself.  However, 
for  so  much  as  she  remained  in  the  picture,  she 
beamed  affably  in  a  fat,  vermilion  way,  and  her 
red  face  was  like  the  setting  sun. 

The  male  Ingham,  being  in  prodigious 
fettle,  would  fain  waddle  onto  the  treacherous 
floor  with  Peg  in  his  hand  for  a  dance ;  for 
Ingham  was  sensibly  exalted  of  his  valor  since 
Eaton,  whom  he  held  in  fear,  was  not  present, 
but  off  in  Baltimore  on  some  long-drawn  duty 
about  new  rifles — meant,  I  fear  me,  for  Nullifiers, 
should  their  pot  of  treason  over-boil.  I  will  say 
this  of  Ingham,  however:  for  all  his  rotund 
uncouthness,  he  went  through  that  dance 
without  falling  down ;  a  no  small  feat  I  should 
call  it,  and  one  to  give  me  relief,  since  for  the 
while  it  lasted  I  was  held  on  tenter-hooks  over 
Peg's  safety,  and  would  hover  about  ready  to 
rush  in  and  save  her  should  affairs  go  badly  be- 
tween Ingham  and  the  glass-like  floor. 

There  occurred  one  incident  of  harshness  I 
could  have  wished  left  out.  It  was  when  that 
Frau  Huygens  drew  up  to  Peg  and  would 
greet  her  as  though  there  were  no  such  name 
as  Krudener  and  no  such  story  as  the  slight 
she  cast  on  Peg  in  the  Russian's  dining  room. 
The  gross  Frau  Huygens  was  arrayed  in  her 
464 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

one  garish  frock  of  many  colors,  and  which 
her  prudence  to  save  money  and  buy  no  more 
frocks  had  made  so  well  known. 

Frau  Huygens,  trained  to  the  venture, 
doubtless,  by  her  husband,  who  still  dwelt  in 
fear  of  Van  Buren  and  those  passports  which 
should  return  him  to  the  Hague,  swept  before 
Peg  with  the  grace  of  a  cabbage  on  parade. 
When  Peg,  in  response  to  her  greeting,  was 
silent  and  would  only  look  on  her  in  a  baffled 
manner,  as  though  her  memory  were  at  bay, 
Frau  Huygens  exclaimed,  with  a  Dutch  thick- 
ness of  reproach  which  no  one  might  imitate 
with  a  pen: 

"  Madam,  don't  you  remember  me?" 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Peg,  as  one  who  makes 
every  polite  effort  and  yet  fails,  "  I  remember 
your  dress  very  well,  but  your  face  is  strange 
to  me." 

With  that  I  swooped  on  Peg  and  whisked 
her  away,  for  I  had  a  horror  of  what  might 
follow. 

"And  there,"  cried  Peg,  with  an  unctuous 
gurgle,  "was  it  not  a  best  of  fortunes,  watch- 
dog, that  she  should  give  me  that  opportu- 
nity? Now  we  are  quits;  and  I  think,  too,  I 
have  her  in  my  debt." 

There  was  nothing  to  be  said  to  this,  and 
465 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

I  made  myself  content  with   thoughts  of  how 
we  were  no  worse  off. 


Late  one  afternoon  when  the  hour  was 
drawing  towards  the  close  of  the  day,  I  had 
planted  myself  at  a  window  and  was  looking 
across  to  the  President's  Square,  and,  since  her 
gables  were  of  necessity  in  the  corner  of  my 
eye,  carrying  Peg  vaguely  on  my  meditations. 
It  had  been  a  still,  windless  day  of  the  early 
spring,  but,  for  all  it  stood  so  late  of  the  sea- 
son, with  a  heaviness  in  the  air  that  smelled  of 
snow. 

Now  I  am  not  one  readily  to  be  borne 
upon  by  imps  in  blue,  and  would  commonly 
give  you  the  reason  of  my  gloomy  mood,  if 
gloom  I  were  a  spoil  to.  But  this  was  the  day 
odd  for  me,  since  I  was  pressed  hard  with  a 
sense  of  disaster  and  the  feeling  as  of  some 
threat  in  the  air  like  a  knife,  that  I  liked  not  at 
all  and  understood  still  less.  What  was  it  to  so 
hang  upon  me  like  a  millstone  or  a  sibyl-spoken 
prophecy  of  death?  I  would  try  to  laugh  it 
down ;  but  the  smile  I  wrung  from  my  unwill- 
ing lips  owned  so  much  of  bitterness  that 
in  mere  defence  I  surrendered  myself  to  a 
pensive  resignation  instead,  as  being  of  two 
evils  the  lesser  one,  and  so  paused  for  what 
466 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

blow  might  descend  upon  me.  Some  disaster 
pended,  of  that  my  spirit  went  convinced; 
and  I  folded  my  hands  and  waited  for  the 
future  to  announce  its  name. 

While  I  was  thus  by  the  window  it  began 
to  snow.  It  was  of  your  left-over  storms  which 
have  been  held  captive  in  caverns  of  the  clouds, 
to  at  last  escape  and  overtake  the  world  a 
month  or  more  behind  the  proper  time.  There 
was  no  stir  to  the  air,  and  the  day  went  still 
and  moderate ;  and  yet  I  never  looked  on 
such  a  fall  of  snow,  with  flakes  big  and  soft  as 
a  baby's  hands.  Even  as  I  gazed,  the  ground 
under  my  eyes  turned  from  a  new  spring  green 
to  white,  while  the  trees  across  were  snow  from 
roots  to  very  finger-tips,  and  showed  in  milky 
fretwork  against  the  low  dullness  of  the  sky. 

As  I  stood  watching  these  white  changes 
in  the  face  of  things — for  the  spectacle 
would  charm  me  like  mesmerism  and  made 
me  forget  my  forebodes — the  General  laid 
a  gentle  hand  upon  my  shoulder.  This, 
too,  had  its  side  to  startle,  for  the  General, 
while  as  tender  as  a  woman,  was  in  nowise 
demonstrative,  and  not  one  to  be  patting  your 
shoulder  or  slapping  your  back. 

In    dim    fashion  those  thin  fingers  would 
add   themselves  to  that  threat  of  sadness,  and 
stir  a  new  alarm  inside  my  bosom. 
467 


PEGGY  O         NEAL 

"What  is  it?"  I  asked,  as  though  he  so- 
licited my  notice  to  something  urgent  or  un- 
usual; "what  should  it  be  now?" — my  voice 
not  firm  but  tremulous. 

The  General  looked  on  me  with  an  affec- 
tionate, consolatory  eye,  and  yet,  somehow,  his 
glance  would  fit  in  ominously  with  my  feeling. 
I  could  tell  how  I  stood  at  the  point  of  bad 
tidings. 

And  at  that  he  began  far  enough  away,  for 
his  first  words  were  of  the  long  ago. 

"I  was  thinking,"  said  he,  "of  that  time 
my  horse  was  shot  and  pinned  me  by  the  leg 
in  the  fight  on  the  Tombigbee.  Do  you  recall 
how  you  sprang  from  your  saddle  and  flung 
the  dying  horse  aside  as  though  you  but 
hefted  a  rabbit?" 

"  When  it  comes  to  that,"  I  returned,  "  I 
supposed  that  you  as  well  as  your  horse  were 
shot  down,  and  the  fear  gave  me  a  flash  of 
strength." 

The  General  was  silent,  his  hand  still  on 
my  shoulder.  Then  he  began  again,  musingly. 

"We  must  ever  be  together,  Major,"  said 
he;  "we  must  stay  together  to  the  last.  I  shall 
die  first ;  I  am  eighteen  years  nearer  the  grave 
than  you  and  shall  go  on  ahead.  It  is  you — I 
look  to  you  for  this — it  is  you  who  must  be 
by  my  side  to  close  my  eyes.  We  must  never 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

part ;  we  are  lonely  men  and  lonesome  men,  and 
shall  make  no  new  friends.  We  must  be  for 
that  the  closer  to  each  other." 

Now,  even  through  my  clouds,  these  words 
would  strike  me  as  lacking  object  or  coherency. 
What  should  be  the  matter?  Was  there  some 
wrong  with  him  or  with  me  ?  He  had  not 
spoken  in  this  vein  even  when  he  lay  in  the  vale 
of  death. 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  there  is  no  present  need 
to  talk  en  death,  thank  God  !  Why  should  you 
talk  on  death  ?" 

"  It  was  not  death  but  you,  I  had  on  my 
mind,"  he  replied.  "I  would  never  be  parted 
from  you." 

"  Nor  shall  you,"  I  declared ;  "  although  I 
should  count  the  absence  of  myself  no  loss  to 
you  or  any  one." 

This  was  not  it ;  what  would  he  be  about? 
"Well,  let  us  put  aside  dole,"  cried  he, 
cheering  himself  with  an  effort;  "now  folk 
would  call  us  two  fortunate,  I  warrant  you,  to 
be  looking  from  a  White  House  window  upon 
a  world  all  ours.  Come,  we  will  have  a  brisker 
view ;  I  have  great  news  for  you,  and  news  to 
make  you  stare.  Nor  will  I  beat  about  the 
bush,  but  go  to  the  heart  at  once.  I  am  about 
to  dissolve  my  cabinet." 
469 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"What!"  I  exclaimed,  for  here  was  a  thing 
without  a  precedent. 

"  My  cabinet  is  to  dissolve.  I  have  ar- 
ranged for  it.  Van  Buren  will  tender  his  resig- 
nation as  of  his  own  desire ;  Eaton  and  Barry 
will  follow  suit.  If  Calhoun's  three  do  not 
take  the  hint  and  act  on  so  good  an  example, 
then  I  will  bring  them  to  book  with  a  demand. 
I  will  say  that,  half  of  my  cabinet  being  gone, 
I  desire  to  sweep  clean  the  site  and  rear  up  in 
its  place  a  new  edifice  of  counsel." 

My  thoughts  were  in  a  tumult,  and  the 
blood  in  me  seemed  seized  of  riot.  It  was  a 
strange  thing,  that  from  the  moment  the  Gen- 
eral's hand  fell  upon  my  shoulder  it  seemed  to 
hold  Peg  before  my  eyes.  And  when  he  talked 
it  was  as  though  he  spoke  her  name  with  every 
word. 

"  Yes,"  he  went  on,  "  Van  Buren's  resigna- 
tion will  be  in  my  hands  to-morrow ;  Eaton's  so 
soon  as  he  returns  from  Baltimore,  say  in  a 
week  ;  then  Barry's  will  come  along  in  the  wake 
of  Eaton's.  I  shall  send  Van  Buren  Minister 
to  England.  He  shall  be  Vice-President  for 
my  second  term,  as  you  and  I  have  planned, 
and  President  after  that." 

"But  Peg,"  cried  I,  at  last;  "what  will 
you  do  with  Peg?" 

470 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM     PEG 

The  General  would  try  to  smile  at  this, 
but  the  effort  was  as  futile  as  had  been  my  own. 
But  he  did  not  fence  at  me  with  any  jesting  re- 
minder of  how  Peg  was  no  part  of  his  cabinet; 
he  met  my  thought  squarely  and  would  make 
allowance  for  my  feeling. 

"  It  is  most  natural,"  he  returned,  "  that 
you  should  ask  of  Peg.  We  have  guarded 
our  little  girl  too  long — you  and  I — not  to  own 
her  first  in  our  concern.  Peg,  then,  shall  go  to 
Florida  and  be  a  queen.  I  shall  give  Eaton 
that  Governorship  ;  we  may  yet  need  a  firm 
hand  in  St.  Augustine.  Is  it  not  a  good  thought  ? 
Our  Peg  shall  rule  among  those  Spaniards  ;  it 
will  almost  be  to  have  a  throne  and  wear  a 
crown.  Does  not  that  please  you,  when  now 
her  station  under  kinder  skies  is  to  be  so 
splendid  and  so  notably  enhanced?" 

From  him  I  turned  and  paced  the  room ; 
then  from  sadness  my  anger  began  to  swell,  for 
I  am  one  whose  grief  runs  with  the  end  of  it 
into  wrath. 

"Tell  me  one  thing,"  cried  I  at  last,  paus- 
ing before  the  General.  "  Why  do  you  dissolve 
your  cabinet?" 

"Will  it  not  lop  off  three  arms  of  Calhoun's 
power?"  he  asked.  "  Does  it  not  palsy  Branch 
and  Ingham  and  Berrien  ?" 

"  But  is  that  the  true  reason?"  I  demanded. 
471 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"  It  is  the  one  I  shall  let  the  world  believe, 
it  any  rate." 

"  That  should  be  no  answer,"  I  retorted,  my 
heart  like  a  furnace  with  the  rage  that  was  com- 
ing over  me.  "Why  do  you  palter?  I  have  the 
right  to  know.  You  have  made  your  dozen  poor 
jests  upon  me,  and  said  I  was  in  love  with  Peg. 
Perhaps  you  would  mean  those  jests.  I  tell 
you  I  do  not  believe  your  word  when  you  say 
it  is  a  move  against  Calhoun.  That  is  mere 
glamour  and  fallacy  and  meant  for  blindness. 
It  is  no  tale  to  tell  me  as  though  I  were  some 
common  gull.  Give  me  your  reason,  then — the 
true  one.  Does  Eaton  know  he  is  to  go?" 

All  this  I  reeled  off,  and  gave  the  General 
no  opening  for  an  answer,  asking  a  dozen  ques- 
tions at  once.  But  he  sat  quiet  and  with  a 
friendly  patience,  and  his  face  spoke  to  me  only 
of  nearness  and  sympathy,  and  never  a  shade  of 
hurt  for  the  rudeness  I  visited  upon  him.  What 
a  heart  of  gold  was  his !  He,  who  bore  noth- 
ing from  an  enemy,  would  bear  all  at  the  hands 
of  a  friend. 

When  I  was  run  out  of  queries  he  began 
to  take  me  up,  beginning  at  the  end. 

"  Eaton  knows,"  said  he;  "he  knew  be- 
fore he  left  for  Baltimore.  For  him  the 
change  will  be  a  relief ;  his  has  been  no  bed  of 
flowers,  and  in  St.  Augustine  his,  place  and 
472 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

power,  and  last,  not  least,  his  peace,  will  gain 
promotion." 

"  Doubtless,"  said  I,  in  a  high  pitch  of 
scorn,  "  he  can  there  flaunt  his  riches  in  the 
faces  of  the  Dons,  and  show  Peg's  beauty,  and 
make  a  vast  display." 

"  You  interrupt  me,"  remarked  the  Gen- 
eral. "However  let  me  ask  a  question:  Why 
do  you  remind  me  how  I've  jested  and  may- 
hap made  some  idle  laugh  between  us,  and  as 
innocent  as  idle,  over  your  feeling  for  the 
little  girl?  Why  do  you  put  that  to  me?" 

"Because,"  said  I,  in  a  fury,  "I  think 
you  break  up  your  cabinet  for  that.  You  will 
have  it  how  Peg  is  in  some  peril  of  me ;  you 
would  send  Peg  to  Florida  on  a  pretense  to 
make  her  safe  from  me.  There  you  have  it. 
You  see  I  can  be  the  honester  and  the  franker 
man.  I  pass  you  my  heart  on  a  spear.  " 

The  General  arose  from  the  chair  into 
which  he  had  flung  himself,  and  taking  me  by 
the  two  shoulders,  would  look  on  me  squarely, 
while  I  in  my  turn  must  gaze  into  his  gray 
depths.  I  could  see  the  tears  stand  in  his  fine 
eyes. 

"Let  me  tell  you  one  thing,"  said  he.  "I 
but  repeat  what  you  know  as  well  as  I,  when  I 
say  that  should  you  harbor  thought  of  Peg,  or 
look  on  her  in  lights  other  than  as  the  wife  of 

473 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

a  friend,  it  would  be  black  disgrace  to  your- 
self and  to  me,  and  most  of  all  to  Peg.  And 
do  you  think  I  would  not  trust  you?  Man,  I 
need  no  sentry  over  you  save  the  sentry  of 
your  own  conscience,  no  guard  other  than  the 
guard  your  honor  sets.  You  would  do  no 
wrong  to  Peg.  It  is  not  you  I  fear;  on  your 
faith  I  would  stake  my  soul's  hope  of  a  meet- 
ing I  look  and  long  for  after  death.  Will  you 
have  my  reason  now  for  what  I  do?  It  is  not 
to  save  Peg  from  you ;  it  is  to  save  Peg  from 
Peg,  she  goes  to  Florida.  And  to  save  our 
Peg  I'd  break  a  dozen  cabinets." 

It  was  now  grown  dark,  and  the  silent 
storm  swept  down  more  whitely  dense  than  be- 
fore. I  threw  a  heavy  military  cloak  about  me 
and  stepped  out  into  the  night.  I  had  no  set 
purpose,  no  destination ;  but  some  sure  influ- 
ence tugged  at  me,  and  then  the  house  would 
seem  to  choke  and  its  heat  to  smother  me ;  I 
wanted  the  darkness  and  the  coolness  and  to 
be  alone.  Was  it  some  sweet  power  beckon- 
ing my  heart,  or  merely  a  plain  instinct  to 
save  and  recover  myself,  one  that  any  hard- 
struck  animal  might  have  had,  to  thus  take  me 
forth  into  the  midst  of  the  blinding  storm? 

My  journey  through  the  gathering  drifts 
was  not  pushed  far  when,  under  one  of  the  oil 
lamps  that  flanked  the  road  and  shed  a  sickly 

474 


How    PEG    WAS    SAVED    FROM    PEG 

flare  through  the  thick-falling  snow,  I  beheld  a 
closed  carriage  drawn  up.  It  was  one  of  those 
vehicles  of  hire  common  of  the  place,  and  be- 
yond being  better  than  most,  and  with  two 
powerful  horses  that  would  have  looked  well 
hauling  a  gun  in  a  battery,  nothing  to  mark  it. 
At  first  glance  I  thought  it  had  come  by  some 
mishap  to  running  gear  or  axle-tree. 

As  I  was  for  pushing  by,  quite  heedless 
of  the  stalled  carriage  and  thinking  only  on  my 
own  broken  heart,  some  one  plucked  me  by 
the  cloak.  Wheeling  sharply,  I  saw  it  was  the 
coachman  who  had  leaped  from  his  box  to  in- 
terrupt me. 

There  would  be  no  mistaking  the  massive 
shoulders  and  easy  pose ;  it  was  Rivera. 

"What's  this?"  said  I.  "  When  did  you 
turn  whip?" 

Rivera  gave  me  no  words,  but  motioning 
towards  the  carriage,  swung  again  to  his  place 
with  the  reins.  As  he  did  so,  there  came  a  tap 
on  the  glass. 

Somewhat  in  a  maze,  I  approached  and 
flung  open  the  door.  In  the  dark  depths  I 
made  out  the  vague  outlines  of  a  woman. 

"  Get  in."     It  was  Peg's  voice. 

Without  demur  or  question  I  took  my 
place  beside  her  and  shut  the  door;  with  that, 
Rivera  cracking  a  thong  over  the  sleepy  horses 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

to  rouse   them,   the   carriage   at    a   slow    pace 
began  moving  Georgetown  way. 

"  Hold  me  close  to  you,  "  whispered  Peg, 
her  low  tones  falling  on  my  ears  like  a  cry  of 
pain,  "  hold  me  close  to  you ;  I  am  cold." 


476 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

LOVE'S    FUNERAL   IN    THE    SNOW. 

As  though  in  a  dream  I  took  Peg  in  under 
my  great  cloak,  and  having  my  arm  about  her 
would  now  hold  her  close  and  warm  to  my 
side.  Her  ear  was  over  my  heart  as  her  face 
lay  pressed  against  me,  and  I  only  hope  she 
could  understand  the  story  of  that  throbbing. 

For  myself  I  was  in  a  mid-swirl  of  mere 
confusion,  with  my  wits  all  upside  down,  and 
no  clear  notion  of  what  I  did  or  why.  The 
General's  word  of  that  Florida  business,  the 
cabinet  to  break  and  Peg  to  go  away  from 
me,  made  it  for  the  moment  as  though  the 
floor  of  the  world  had  given  way  beneath  my 
feet.  It  would  provoke  chaos  and  seem  the 
end  of  things. 

It  was  never  said  of  me,  even  by  the  least 
informed,  that  I  would  be  swayed  in  any  kind 
or  made  to  pause  in  what  I  went  about  by  the 
counsel  of  conventionality.  I  had  lived  a  life 
half-bitted,  and  for  the  main  with  bridle  on  my 
neck ;  the  last  I  cared  for  were  the  frowns  or 
the  smiles  of  folk.  If  it  were  a  woman  to 
talk  against  the  teeth  of  my  fancy,  I  would 

477 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

turn  my  back  on  her;  if  a  man,  I  had  a  way  to 
gag  his  tongue  if  it  should  be  no  better  than 
the  butt  of  my  pistol.  And  yet,  however 
loose  my  habit  or  dull  my  knowledge  of  those 
matters,  I  did  not  go  without  a  fashion  of  cold 
shock  on  Peg's  behalf  when  I  was  so  far  my 
own  man  again  as  to  dwell  on  our  position — 
we,  plodding  through  the  snow  and  the  dark- 
ness, locked  in  that  carriage. 

This  mood  of  apprehension  was  so  much 
in  the  upper-hand  with  me  that  it  came  to  be 
the  impulse,  and  would  suggest  the  topic  I 
laid  tongue  to  when  first  I  found  my  words. 
It  was  not  without  a  mighty  effort  of  the  will 
that  I  obliged  myself  to  some  steadiness  of 
utterance.  Then,  and  not  very  craftily,  I  might 
observe,  I,  in  the  manner  of  one  who  thinks 
aloud,  and  surely  as  much  to  myself  as  to  Peg, 
gave  vent  to  an  exclamation  under  my  breath. 
Indeed,  I  would  not  have  looked  for  Peg  to 
hear  me,  since  her  head — pretty  ears  and  all — 
was  buried  beneath  the  thick  folds  of  my 
cloak. 

"What  if  folk  were  to  know!"  I  said. 

Then  came  Peg's  voice  like  a  half  stifled 
murmur  of  despair. 

"What  should  I  care  who  knows?"  cried 
she.  "  It  is  my  heart's  funeral !  My  heart  is 
dead  and  we  go  upon  its  funeral  in  this  snow !" 
478 


LOVE'S     FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

At  that,  without  well  heeding  what  I  was 
about,  and  doubtless  drawn  to  it  by  the  note 
of  woe  in  Peg's  tones,  I  held  her  to  my  side 
even  more  closely  than  before.  Thus  we  re- 
mained for  a  long  space  in  utter  silence,  neither 
speaking  a  word,  while  the  quiet  storm  stole 
down  upon  us  and  the  slow  wheels  forced  their 
passage  through  the  white  cold  levels  of  the 
snow. 

After  a  bit,  Peg's  head,  curls  in  a  tangle 
and  hood  removed,  was  thrust  outside  my 
cloak,  which  garment,  however,  she  would  con- 
tinue to  wrap  about  her  and  hold  with  her 
hand. 

"  I  would  still  be  near  to  you,"  she  said, 
as  though  in  explanation  of  the  cloak,  "  though 
I  am  no  longer  cold." 

The  mere  truth  was,  the  night,  while  a 
choke  and  smother  of  snow,  was  nothing  chill, 
being  bare  freezing  for  a  temperature  and 
never  a  breath  of  air  to  stir,  and  the  inside  of 
the  big  carriage  as  warm  as  many  a  library. 
And  yet,  when  I  would  first  get  in,  I  found 
Peg  shivering  as  with  an  ague.  That  was  gone 
now  and  she  more  in  control. 

Peg  would  now  be  more  mistress  of  her- 
self and  speak  with  a  measure  of  firmness. 

"You  have  heard?"  she  asked. 

"The  General,"  I  returned,  "has  told  me 

479 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

you  are  to  go  to  Florida.  But  how  should  you 
have  been  told  ?  Or  was  it  known  to  you  for 
long?" 

This  latter  I  put  a  little  viciously,  for  it 
struck  me  on  the  moment  how  Peg  might  have 
been  aware  of  this  new  destiny  for  days,  and 
hidden  it  from  me.  But  no ;  she  had  come  to 
her  information  but  an  hour  before.  Even 
while  the  General  with  his  hand  on  my  rebel- 
lious shoulder  gave  me  the  story  of  it,  the  let- 
ter which  told  the  news  to  Peg  was  put  within 
her  hands. 

"  It  was  to  have  been  a  secret,"  said  she, 
"and  my  husband  would  have  kept  it  until  his 
return.  But  he  will  be  detained  beyond  his 
plans ;  he  wrote  me  because  of  preparations 
I  must  make." 

While  Peg  said  this,  her  face  was  held  up 
towards  mine,  and  even  in  the  vague  lights, 
which  were  rather  the  ghosts  of  lights  than  any 
radiance  however  dim,  I  could  catch  some 
whiteness  of  it. 

Suddenly  her  head  was  in  its  old  resting 
place  over  my  heart,  with  the  cloak  to  again 
become  its  cover. 

"  Watch-dog,"    whispered     Peg,    and     I 

might    tell    how    deeply  she   was   stricken  by 

the    quaver    of  her   voice,    as    much   as    by  a 

trembling    that  swept   her  as  a   gust  rumples 

480 


LOVE'S    FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

the  surface  of  a  tarn ;  "  watch-dog,  I  felt  that 
I  would  not  live  unless  I  saw  you.  Do  you 
contemn  me  ?  Do  you  own  shame  for  your  little 
friend  ?  I  could  not  help  it ;  I  sent  for  Rivera, 
and  made  him  fetch  this  carriage.  We  are 
alone — hidden  from  the  world's  eyes.  I  have 
torn  a  night  from  the  hands  of  Time  to  be  no 
one's  night  save  ours.  I  waited  by  the  lamp ; 
my  soul  called  to  you  and  I  knew  you  would 
come.  I  would  not  send ;  I  was  sure  you 
would  be  with  me  without  that.  I  should  have 
died  if  I  had  not  found  you.  Say  that  I  did 
right,  watch-dog.  Say  that  it  was  right !  I 
only  cry  for  your  one  word ;  what  others  will 
think  or  say  I  care  not,  but  I  could  not  bear 
up  against  your  anger!  Say  that  I  did  right; 
say  it! — say  that  you  are  glad." 

"  I  will  say  it  all  and  intend  it  all,  my  little 
one !"  Here  I  stroked  Peg's  tangle  of  curls 
as  one  would  pet  a  child. 

My  whole  being  was  wrapped  in  a  storm 
and  my  bosom  caged  a  whirlwind.  I  could  be 
calm  enough,  apparently,  and  yet  I  was  grow- 
ing aware  of  that  tempest  of  spirit  which 
shook  me  like  an  aspen.  I  had  been  dull — 
dull  to  the  point  of  crime  ;  but  now  my  wisdom 
would  begin  to  sharpen  and  brighten  itself. 

Still,  I  had  so  much  coolness  to  call  my 
own  that  I  was  glad  of  the  fact  of  Rivera.  I 
481 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

remember  thinking  on  that ;  for,  with  no  more 
words  than  the  dumb,  he  was  as  secret  as  a 
mole  and  as  honest,  withal,  and  single-hearted 
as  a  hound.  There  would  be  none  to  know; 
as  Peg  said,  she  had  torn  a  night  from  eternity 
to  be  ours  and  ours  alone. 

While  these  thoughts  went  tumbling  down 
the  steeps  of  my  conjecturings,  I  continued 
mechanically  to  caress  Peg's  hair,  and  it  felt 
like  a  web  of  gossamer  in  my  coarse  fingers. 

"  Contemn  you,  child  !"  said  I,  and  my 
voice  was  not  much  louder  than  had  been 
hers,  and  I  bent  down  my  head  so  that  she 
might  hear;  "contemn  you!  I  would  as  soon 
impeach  the  snow  outside,  new  given  from  the 
sky,  denouncing  it  for  soot." 

Peg  began  to  weep,  and  I  could  hear  the 
sharp  catching  of  her  sobs.  Suddenly  the 
moan  came  sighing  up  to  me  : 

"  Oh,  if  there  were  no  such  word  as  right 
or  justice  or  duty,  but  only  love — just  love!" 

Then  with  a  quick  backward  twist  of  her 
form  that  was  like  an  impulse,  and  as  replete 
of  a  swift  grace  as  any  suppleness  of  that  long 
ago  leopard  whereof  she  would  so  often  make 
me  think,  Peg  turned  herself  in  my  arms,  and 
with  her  own  encircling  my  neck  lay  crying  on 
my  bosom.  I  held  her  close — closer.  I  could 
tell  the  beating  of  her  heart,  count  the  foot- 
482 


LOVE'S    FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

falls  of  her  nature  as  though  she  were  parcel 
of  myself.  How  I  loved  her !  adored  her  ! — 
my  prone  spirit  would  fall  on  its  knees  to  her 
for  its  Deity. 

The  while,  too,  and  with  my  soul  at  these 
prayers,  my  candor  would  arrest  me  for  the 
traitor  I  was.  Where  should  be  that  conscience 
the  General  spoke  on  ?  Or  where  that  honor 
which  was  to  have  been  as  a  sentry  to  check 
my  strayings  ?  That  honor  was  recreant  where 
love  would  take  the  field  against  it ;  that  con- 
science was  so  much  apostate  of  the  right  it 
would  frame  an  argument  of  equity  and  claim 
superior  liberty  for  superior  love,  and  be  all 
for  carrying  Peg  away.  My  boasted  manhood 
was  a  rope  of  sand ! 

Even  now,  as  weary-white  with  years  I  tell 
this  tale  of  dead  and  other  days,  I  yet  wonder 
upon  that  discovery  of  myself.  This  was  what 
I  beheld :  I  had  loved  Peg  from  the  start ;  the 
General's  jest  was  sober  truth.  I  would  wor- 
ship her,  and  then  cheat  myself  with  lie  and 
sophistry  to  hide  my  villainy  against  my  own 
detection.  And  now  when  the  mask  was  fallen 
and  I  stood  face  to  face  with  the  true  image  of 
my  infamy,  would  I  still  press  forward  to  my 
sins  ?  Or  would  I  think  on  the  good  General, 
and  the  pain  and  the  foul  stain  for  each  of  us 
which  I  was  about  to  compass  ? 
483 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

It  was  this  to  run  in  my  mind,  but  all  in  a 
dimmest  way  to  be  imagined,  and  as  though  it 
were  a  dream  and  nothing  true.  As  bonds  to 
stay  me,  these  thoughts  came  to  be  no  more 
than  packthreads;  as  props  to  uphold  me, 
trembling  to  a  fall,  they  proved  the  merest 
reeds  to  lean  on.  With  Peg  cradled  in  my 
arms,  her  heart  beating  on  my  own,  she  filled 
out  the  world  for  me  and  thrust  all  else  beyond 
the  frontier  of  my  outmost  hope  or  fear.  I 
wanted  only  Peg,  would  heed  no  other  call,  and 
whether  it  were  right -or  wrong  or  black  or 
white  I  cared  not.  Caught  fast  in  the  mills,  I 
was  wholly  ground  between  Peg  and  my  mighty 
love  for  her.  In  a  supreme  egotism  and  the 
selfishness  that  goes  wanting  heart  or  con- 
science, I  would  set  torch  to  the  skies  before  I 
gave  her  up. 

It  is  the  fair  wellhead  of  amazement  how 
a  man  is  thus  strange  to  himself ;  how  he  will 
defeat  his  own  best  prophecy  and  be  as  oppo- 
site as  night  and  day  to  all  he  promised.  Folk 
have  never  accounted  me  weak,  and  I  myself 
would  have  said  I  was  a  man  of  stone.  I  have 
been  described  for  one  of  resolution.  I  have 
spurred  my  horse  across  the  front  of  beaten 
troops,  terror-whipped  and  in  retreat.  I've 
ridden  against  them,  and  with  word  and  point 
of  sword  forced  them  to  a  halt.  I've  wheeled 
484 


LOVE'S     FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

them,  and,  since  they  would  not  go  without, 
driven  them  back  like  sheep  ;  and  then,  when 
they  would  be  of  a  braver  hope,  taken  their 
lead  and  whirled  them  like  lions  upon  the  foe 
they  lately  fled  from,  and  won  a  battle  with 
them.  And  now  I,  who  was  granite  in  the  face 
of  men,  had  only  a  will  of  water  for  this  girl 
who  wept  across  my  heart. 

"Take  me  away!"  she  cried;  "oh,  take 
me  away !" 

Then  it  was  my  love  swept  down  upon  her 
like  a  strong  wind.  I  take  shame  to  repeat 
what  I  said.  Bluntly  I  would  disregard  all 
claims,  forfeit  honor,  forget  the  General  and 
defy  the  rest ;  we  would  wander  to  new  re- 
gions, she  and  I,  and  set  up  our  idol  of  blind 
love.  Carried  by  my  soul's  wish,  I  would 
leave  her  nothing  untold ;  I  would  bow  down 
at  her  feet  and  beg  of  her  to  come  with  me. 

As  I  spoke,  Peg  would  seem  to  turn  more 
calm  and  comforted.  She  did  not  withdraw 
from  my  arms,  but  rested  in  them  like  a  child. 
And  yet  there  arose  a  sad  steadfastness  to 
wrap  her  about  that  was  a  check  and  a  bar 
to  me. 

"  Watch-dog,"  said  Peg   at  last,   and   her 

manner  was   the  manner  of  one  who  grieves, 

"watch-dog,  I  am  a  wicked  woman.     I  live  my 

life  backward,  and  it  would    be   as  though   I 

485 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

could  not  help  or  save  myself.  My  feet  take 
hold  on  baseness,  and  my  hands  spin  evil  for 
those  who  do  me  good.  My  touch  is  a  dark- 
ness— a  palsy — a  death.  Oh,  why  was  I  born  !" 
Peg  wailed  ;  "  why  was  I  sent  to  destroy  the 
ones  I  love !" 

Not  a  word  would  now  come  to  me.  I 
was  silenced  and  sat  like  one  convicted,  wait- 
ing sentence.  But  that  cold  thought  still 
crept  about  my  heart  like  a  snake.  I  would — 
I  must  have  Peg ;  I  would  give  my  share  in 
God  to  make  her  mine! 

"What  should  be  the  wrong  in  me?"  Peg 
went  on.  "  Knowing  the  right  from  the  left, 
I  take  ever  the  left  hand  turning ;  seeing  good 
and  evil,  I  choose  the  bad,  and  there  rises  a 
black  glory  in  my  heart  like  a  cloud  of  pleas- 
ant sin  to  swallow  up  repentance.  Oh,  if  I 
might  only  tame  myself  to  an  appearance  of 
right  and  be  a  hypocrite  when  I  may  not  be  a 
saint  1" 

Peg  was  presently  better  restored  to  her- 
self. In  the  very  moment  when  the  gates  of 
my  soul  would  open  to  let  it  forth  to  her  and 
I  gave  myself  into  her  hands  to  be  fashioned 
by  her  as  she  would,  Peg  began  to  gather 
steadiness.  It  was  she  to  now  think  and  speak 
and  decide  for  both  of  us  ;  for  myself,  I  was 
clean  swept  away.  I  was  not  to  know  this  new 


LOVE'S     FUNERAL    IN    THE     SNOW 

strength  of  Peg's  from  her  tones  alone,  or  the 
trend  of  what  she  uttered ;  I  could  feel  her 
heart-throbs  become  firmer  and  more  slow  as 
she  lay  in  my  arms,  and  it  was  in  them  I  read 
the  truth  of  her  resolve. 

"Watch-dog,"  said  Peg  in  a  way  most 
sweetly  solemn,  "  I  think  nothing  of  myself. 
If  it  were  I  alone  to  be  unmade,  I'd  never 
leave  your  arms  again.  Come  weal,  come  woe, 
here  would  I  bide,  and  while  your  arms  were 
round  me  the  worst  would  change  to  be  the 
best.  But  I  will  not  see  you  under  the  mire  of 
men's  tongues.  Dear  one,  you  would  die  I 
You  are  one  whose  life  grows  on  his  honor 
like  a  flower  on  its  stem  ;  disgrace  would  cut 
you  down  and  you  would  die.  And  yet,  I  am 
glad  I  love  you;  I  am  glad  I  care  nothing  for 
myself.  Let  my  fate  be  woven  to  me  coarse 
as  sackcloth,  harsh  as  nettles,  yet  will  I  exult 
while  I  draw  its  folds  about  me.  I  will  go  on 
as  a  world  would  say  I  should ;  and  if  the  way 
of  life  lie  steep,  I'll  still  climb  on  and  think  I 
toil  for  you ;  and  if  it  be  stony  and  if  it  bruise 
my  feet,  I'll  say  I  suffer  that  to  keep  you  safe; 
I'll  make  my  grief  my  Eden  and  find  in  the 
endless  woe  of  your  surrender  a  nobler,  higher, 
more  immortal  transport  than  would  have 
owned  me  in  your  arms.  And  there  will  be 
another  world !"  Peg's  tones  swung  low  to 
487 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

my  ear,  and  mystical.  "Watch-dog,  there  be 
lives  after  this." 

Peg  was  silent  for  a  space,  and  would 
turn  even  and  cool  and  in  a  way  of  content.  I, 
on  my  part,  might  neither  say  her  yea  nor  nay, 
for  I  was  in  the  hollow  of  her  hand  like  a  peb- 
ble to  be  retained  or  cast  by  her  into  the  sea 
as  she  should  conclude. 

And  somehow  I  was  no  longer  in  the  dark. 
I  loved  her ;  and  yet  I  knew  Peg  was  not  to  be 
for  me  ;  she  had  said  the  word ;  she  would  go 
and  I  would  stay ;  for  all  her  soft  beauty  and 
that  love  for  me  which  spoke  in  every  fiber  of 
her  being,  the  truth  flowed  in  on  me  like  a  tide 
that  in  no  way  might  I  change  her  or  shape 
her  or  move  her  from  her  will.  Against  my 
prayer  and  in  the  front  of  protest,  I  would  be 
saved  to  myself  and  I  would  lose  her;  she 
would  do  it  all.  What  was  it  the  General  said  ? 
He  would  save  Peg  from  Peg?  It  was  she 
who  now  would  save  me  from  both  herself  and 
me  when  my  love-sown  madness  was  hot  to 
make  a  wreck  of  all. 

"Yes,  watch-dog,"  Peg  continued  dream- 
ily, "there  will  come  another  life."  Then  of 
the  suddenest  twining  her  arms  about  my  neck 
more  tightly  still  and  until  she  clung  there  like 
a  part  of  me,  she  cried  out  as  though  her  soul 
488 


LOVE'S    FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

spoke :  "  Kiss  me,  sweetheart ;  kiss  me,  if  it  be 
but  once.     This  night  at  least  is  ours." 

It  was  she  who  would  command.  I  grew 
drunken  on  her  lips  while  my  thoughts  would 
stray  and  stagger.  I  could  know  nothing,  act 
nothing,  be  nothing  save  as  she  would  have 
me.  Her  hot  arms  were  as  the  arms  of  sum- 
mer torrents  to  hurry  me  along ;  her  lips  were 
like  the  lips  of  a  whirlpool !  It  was  a  kiss — a 
kiss  of  the  infinite — and  would  lay  its  velvet 
touch  upon  the  ultimate  reason  of  existence. 


And  so  Peg  went  away ;  and  for  my  por- 
tion I  took  up  my  old  life,  which  now  was  as 
dark  and  chill  and  hollow  as  a  cave. 

Now  what  should  there  be  more  to  tell? 
What  matters  it  how  secession  hid  its  head? 
or  how  Calhoun  resigned  his  Vice-Presidency 
to  later  creep  back  to  a  seat  in  that  Senate 
where  he  had  sat  on  high  and  ruled  ?  or  how 
the  General  fought  and  sle\v  the  Bank  ?  Who 
is  there  to  care  for  the  story  of  the  General's 
re-election,  when  Van  Buren  came  with  him  for 
the  second  place?  Who,  I  say,  would  bend  the 
ear  of  interest  to  such  tales  as  those  when  now 
our  Peg  was  gone  ? 

The  General  never  again  took  up  with  me 
that  matter  of  his  Cabinet  and  its  dissolution, 
489 


PEGGY  O'NEAL 

and  how  he  scattered  it  to  save  Peg  from  her- 
self. One  evening,  however,  as  he  smoked  and 
I  sat  bitter  and  listless,  I  plumped  a  question 
at  him. 

"  If  it  were  to  save  Peg  from  Peg,"  said  I, 
"why  did  you  defer  so  long?  Why  did  not 
you  disperse  your  Cabinet  months  before  ? 
Or  was  it  that  you  failed  to  note  Peg's  peril  of 
herself  till  just  before  you  acted  ?"  This  last 
with  a  great  sneer. 

"  It  was  plain  to  me  from  the  beginning 
how  Peg  was  won  to  you,"  said  he. 

"  Then,  in  the  beginning  why  did  not  you 
act?" 

"How  could  I?  Peg  was  under  fire  for 
her  fair  repute.  Had  I  broken  up  my  Cab- 
inet, it  would  have  been  Peg's  death  blow. 
Folk  would  have  told  how  it  was  for  the  war 
upon  her  and  because  she  could  not  be  de- 
fended. No,  I  must  give  her  time  for  triumph ; 
that  achieved,  the  rest  might  happen  and  she 
be  made  secure  in  Florida.  It  was  the  one  trail, 
and  I  followed  it."  The  General  came  over  to 
my  chair.  "  Old  comrade,"  said  he  with  a 
world  of  goodness  in  his  manner,  "  if  I  have 
thrust  a  thorn  in  your  heart,  forgive  me.  If 
friendship  can  cure,  that  thorn  will  be  plucked 
away. " 

490 


LOVE'S    FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

On  another  day  the  General  was  in  a 
temper  for  abstract  philosophies.  It  lay  in  a 
hot  time  of  summer  and  his  moods  flowed 
lazily.  His  fancy  would  run  away  to  the  topic 
of  woman  and  her  helplessness. 

"  Beautiful  and  sweet,  she  is,"  he  was  say- 
ing, "and  a  blessing,  too;  but  the  man  must 
ever  bear  upon  his  mind  her  weakness,  and  be 
her  buckler  even  from  herself.  He  must  be 
on  guard  for  both.  For  she  is  as  a  child, 
and  nowise  deep  nor  fortified  of  any  rooted 
strength.  Your  man,  on  the  other  hand,  while 
wanting  those  traits  of  beauty  which  shine 
forth  in  woman  like  the  stars  at  night,  is  withal 
safe  enough.  He  is  cold  like  an  iceberg,  and 
like  an  iceberg  he  rides  steadily  throughout 
every  gale  with  nine-tenths  of  him  beneath  the 
sea.  Your  tempest  can  go  no  deeper  than  the 
surface ;  it  cannot  search  the  ocean's  depths, 
and  so  the  man  swims  safely." 

Where  the  General  would  have  brought 
up  in  these  tongue-wanderings  one  may  only 
guess.  He  was  never  to  finish,  for  in  a  flurry 
of  irritation  I  interrupted  him. 

"  Now  let  me  tell  you  one  thing,"  said  I, 
wheeling  on  him  with  a  sort  of  venom ;  "  to 
my  mind,  your  man  is  a  dullish  fool  of  neither 
bones  nor  brains,  and  your  woman  has  nothing 
to  fear  from  him." 

491 


PEGGY  O          NEAL 

"What's  that?"  cried  the  General,  startled 
into  letting  fall  his  pipe;  "what  do  I  hear  you 
say?" 

"And  more,"  I  went  on;  "your  man  will 
do  whatever  your  woman  commands.  He  will 
go  or  stay,  or  fetch  or  carry,  or  weep  or  laugh, 
or  live  or  die  by  the  least  breath  of  her  lips. 
Your  man  is  mere  clay;  your  woman  is  the 
potter  to  mould  him  and  bake  him  and  break 
him  in  form  and  fashion  and  fragment  as  shall 
best  flatter  her  caprice  or  most  nicely  match 
the  color  of  her  fancy.  For  virtue,  your  man 
is  a  toad  and  your  woman  that  blossom  by 
which  he  crouches.  For  power,  your  woman 
is  the  wind,  while  your  man  is  that  poor  scrap 
of  nothing  to  be  tossed  thereon." 

"  You  are  a  cynic,"  retorted  the  General 
with  a  snort,  and  after  surveying  me  for  a 
moment  with  a  warlike  eye  he  sauntered  away 
for  another  pipe. 

"Your  woman  must  save  herself,"  cried  I, 
as  he  went  through  the  door.  "  At  all  events, 
if  she  have  nothing  stronger  than  your  man  to 
lean  on,  her  case  is  lost  and  desolate  indeed." 

"  You-all  is  plumb  kerrect,  Marse  Major," 
said  Jim,  who  as  usual  had  been  listening  with 
flattering  interest  while  the  General  and  I  dis- 
cussed; "you-all  is  plumb  right.  Man  an' 
woman  is  jes'  like  a  candle ;  he's  d'taller,  she's 
492 


LOVE'S    FUNERAL    IN    THE    SNOW 

d'wick.  D'Marse  General  is  a  pow'ful  fine 
soger  an'  all  that,  but  he  shore  don't  know 
enough  'bout  women  folks  to  wad  a  gun." 

One  day  I  got  a  little  note  from  Peg.  It 
was  as  though  I  held  a  sunbeam  in  my  fingers ; 
I  kissed  it  while  my  heart  put  up  a  prayer. 
Thus  it  ran  : 

"  So,  Watch-dog: — They  have  taken  me  and  left  you, 
and  there  be  miles  between.  Wherefore  I  feel  very  safe  and 
very  sad.  It  is  all  birds  and  blossoms  and  trees  and  sunshine 
and  bright  days  and  sorrow  here.  I  came  away  in  such  a 
tumult  of  hurry  I  left  many  things  behind.  Most  of  them  I  can 
do  without,  but  I  mislaid  my  love,  and  that  grows  to  be  a  sore 
distress.  Here  where  I  should  need  it  I'm  without  it;  there, 
where  mayhap  it  lies  unregarded  and  uncared  for,  it  can  give 
me  no  good  but  only  pain.  You  may  find  it  — my  poor  love!  — 
since  it  should  be  something  close  to  you.  It  may  be  lying  at 
your  feet  while  you  read  this.  Should  you  come  across  it,  even 
though  you  be  in  the  art  and  press  of  president  making,  don't 
forget  to  lift  it  up  and  save  it  and  keep  it  warm  upon  your 
heart  for  sake  of  little  Peg.  But  I  must  cure  me  of  this  abject 
strain  ;  I  too  much  beg  where  I  should  give  commands.  For 
are  you  not  my  slave?  Look  if  the  small  white  mark  of  vassal- 
age be  not  upon  your  hand!  Do  you  find  it?  Yes?  Read  it, 
then,  and  re-read  it  with  your  heart !  Do  you  know  the  promise 
it  would  tell  you?  By  the  sign  of  that  white  mark  my  tooth 
made,  it  is  given  that  now  or  then,  or  here  or  there,  or  in  this 
life  or  in  that,  your  Peg  will  yet  lay  hands  of  love  upon  her 
slave." 

That  was  the  last  letter  as  it  was  the  first 
— the  last  word  from  my  lost  and  vanished 
Peg.  I  have  that  letter  by  me  as  I  write ;  it  is 
yellow  and  worn  and  stained  and  blistered  as 
though  with  tears.  That  was  my  last  word 

493 


PEGGY  O  NEAL 

from  her,  I  say.  And  now  when  the  winter  of 
my  days  lies  thick  and  white  and  cold  upon 
me,  and  those  whom  I  loved  are  gone,  while 
those  to  come  and  go  before  me  are  strangers 
whose  very  names  are  strange,  I  wend  often  to 
Peg's  grave.  There  where  the  great  stone  fits 
down  above  her,  and  resting  myself  upon  that 
stone — there,  by  the  door  of  death,  I  muse 
upon  the  past.  I  kiss  the  stone  above  Peg — 
cold  it  is,  cold  as  my  age-chilled  lips !  And  I 
think  on  the  time  that  was,  with  its  hot  lights 
to  dazzle  and  blind  and  make  drunk  the  heart 
with  the  red  splendors  of  them ;  and  on  the 
time  that  will  be — a  shadow-land  of  unformed 
wonders !  Then  will  my  old  eyes  come  to 
search  among  the  wrinkles  for  that  small  white 
mark  on  my  hand  which  Peg's  loving  leopard 
teeth  ordained,  and  I  feel  again  that  snow- 
storm kiss,  while  my  hope,  for  a  prayer,  recites 
Peg's  bond  to  yet  lay  hands  of  love  upon  her 
slave. 

THE   END. 


494 


THE       BOOK     WITH     THE     CHRISTY     COVER 

Her  Lord  aoid  Master 

AN    INTERNATIONAL    ROMANCE 


By  Martha  Morton 

Illustrated  by 
Howard  Chandler 
Christy 

with  frontispiece 
in  tint 


'  you  lucked  Md  unl!"    she  said. 
hysterically. 


*—jtn.«J  1/nJli.i  I'fc-Eff  i^t.;  "Clean,  sweet,  wholesome."— N.  Y.  Sun. 

"  Tne  story  ,s  bright,  original  and  clever." — Book  News,  Philadelphia. 


Beautifully  bound  in  cloth,  with  five  full  page  illustrations.      475  pages. 
Price       $1.50 

DREXEL    BIDDLE,    Publisher,    PHILADELPHIA 


Date  Due 


PRINTED  IN   U.S.*.  CAT.     NO.     24      161 


A     000618014     5 


